Guardare, 2023
GPO-1159
To See
Photo print, pencil and collage on paper
Nine framed parts 81 x 65 cm each, overall dimensions 250 x 200 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso of the ninth element, centre: “ “Guardare” / Giulio Paolini / 2023”
Collection of the artist
Nine framed elements placed next to one another in three parallel rows that make up a large painting are a homage to Italo Calvino, recalling the works of art and figures that he loved.
In the centre, a photographic colour and actual-size reproduction of the painting Melanconia (1912) by Giorgio de Chirico acts as the visual fulcrum of the whole, returned to and amplified in the other elements by way of a pencil drawing. The elements in the first and in the second row also include several photographic details of subjects that were dear to Calvino (works by Saul Steinberg, Fausto Melotti, Paul Klee, an ancient view of Florence, details of the Friday Mosque of Isfahan), as well as an image of the Young Man Looking at Lorenzo Lotto, 1967, by Paolini himself. In the sixth element, a photographic portrait of Calvino is cropped so that the author appears to be intent on walking away from the space of the painting, his gaze intersecting the continuation of the horizon line in de Chirico's work.
The title of the work refers to that of the collection of writings by Calvino, edited by Marco Belpoliti, that focus on visual experience (I. Calvino, Guardare, edited by M. Belpoliti [Milan: Mondadori, 2023]). A curious coincidence also links Calvino's portrait to the cover of another volume from the same period, in which the writer observes the viewer but from the opposite direction (cf. D. Scarpa, Calvino fa la conchiglia [Milan: Hoepli, 2023]).
• First element: Roberto Sebastián Matta Echaurren, Dying Business, oil on canvas.
• Second element: Fausto Melotti, Il Canal Grande, 1963, painted terracotta, refractory and brass, 54 x 210 x 14 cm, Private collection.
• Third element: Statue-rebus, 18th Dynasty (1550-1292 BC.), limestone, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
• Fourth element: Fabio Borbottoni, Piazza dei Marchesi Strozzi, second half of the 19th century, oil on canvas, Raccolte d’arte della Fondazione CR, Florence.
• Fifth element: Giorgio de Chirico, Melanconia, 1912-14, oil on canvas, 79 x 63.5 cm, Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation, London.
• Sixth element (from left to right and from top to bottom): Mihrab of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, 17th century, Isfahan; Giulio Paolini, Giovane che guarda Lorenzo Lotto, 1967, photo emulsion on canvas, 30 x 34 cm, Sammlung FER; Shūsaku Arakawa, The Gazing Other, 1984-85, oil, marker and pencil on canvas, Estate of Madeline Gins; Tullio Pericoli, Rubare a Klee, 1979, watercolour and pencil on paper, 33 x 24 cm; Fausto Melotti, Gli effimeri, 1978, brass and fabric, 128 x 100 x 48 cm, Private collection; P. and H.-L. Jaquet-Droz and J.-F. Leschot, Androids of the scribe and draughtsman, 1773-74, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Neuchâtel; Saul Steinberg, Dragon, Hero and Ball, 1968, ink on paper, 55.6 x 35.6 cm, Private collection; all reproductions are from Marco Belpoliti, Guardare (Milan: Mondadori, 2023), fig. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, n. pag.
• Title from Marco Belpoliti, Guardare (Milan: Mondadori, 2023).
| 2023-24 | Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, Favoloso Calvino. Il mondo come opera d’arte. Carpaccio, de Chirico, Gnoli, Melotti e gli altri, 13 October 2023 - 4 February 2024, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 237, col. repr. p. 211, referred to in the text by M. Barenghi p. 211. |
| 2026 | Milan, Palazzo Reale, Metafisica/Metafisiche. Modernità e malinconia, 28 January - 21 June, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 596, col. repr. p. 187. |
| • | G. Paolini, Idem (Milan: Electa, 2023), col. repr. on cover. |
| • | A. Cortellessa, “La cornice e le stelle”, in G. Paolini, Idem (Milan: Electa, 2023), pp. 129-131, 132, repr. p. 130. |
| • | L. Canova, “Negli abissi del tempo. Giulio Paolini e Giorgio de Chirico”, in Metafisica. Quaderni della Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico 22-23 (Imola: Maretti Editore, 2023), pp. 128-130, repr. no. 21 p. 130. |
| • | D. Viva, “Il Pittore e il suo doppio. Giulio Paolini con Italo Calvino”, in Antinomie, collective blog, 10 January 2024, col. repr. |
| • | F. Guzzetti, Collezionare il futuro. Visioni dell’arte moderna italiana nelle opere della Fondazione De Fornaris (Milan, Skira editore, 2025), pp. 168-169, col. repr. p. 169. |
