A return to Verona for the artist Paolini, who between 2001 and 2002 was the protagonist of an anthology in Forti Palace, historic headquarters of Gallery of Modern Art. Today as then, Paolini has imagined a lyrical and conceptual journey characterized by the key elements of his research, in which unpublished works, conceived for the Veronese museum, dialogue with works from the GAM collection, such as The apparition of the Virgin, present in the civic collection since 2002.
In And in Arcadia Ego, Paolini stages the visual story of an artist who deals, with renewed creativity, with the "deceptions" of representation - such as copying, mimesis, perspective, constant elements of his research - in favor of a conceptuality that renews the complex chessboard of meanings around the work of art.
Giulio Paolini, Study for “Copy and original”, 2023; Pencil and collage on paper 48 x 33 cm; Photo © Bettina Della Casa, Turin Courtesy Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin; © Giulio Paolini
The artist investigates the traces of A double life in the symmetrical and opposite subdivision of two halves of the same place. Ambiguity that is also reflected in From dawn to dusk. It is also included among these The model himself, an emblematic but at the same time mysterious inhabitant of an artist's studio.
The fulcrum of the habitat revolves around the Reappearance of the Virgin
In this concept he reinterprets The apparition of the Virgin, work dated 1995-1996, already present in the GAM civic collection. The work is made up of two elements arranged one on the ground and the other in mid-air; on the floor there is a photographic enlargement of The Blessed Virgin by Francis Picabia, while the open case of a cello hangs suspended from the ceiling.
The project Habitat was born to deepen a specific research that matured in Italy with Lucio Fontana starting from the end of the 40s and flourished definitively in the 60s, then developing with different and original trajectories up to the present day.
Biographical notes by Giulio Paolini
Born on 5 November 1940 in Genoa, Giulio Paolini lives in Turin. Since his first participation in a group exhibition in 1961 and his first solo exhibition in 1964 he has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. The main retrospectives were held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1980), at the Nouveau Musée, Villeurbanne (1984), at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart (1986), at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome (1988), at the Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (1998) and at the Prada Foundation, Milan (2003). Among the most recent anthologies are those at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2014), at the Carriero Foundation, Milan (2018) and at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli-Turin (2020). He took part in various exhibitions of Arte Povera and was invited several times to the Documenta in Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982, 1992) and to the Venice Biennale (1970, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2013). In 2022 he was awarded the Imperial Prize for Painting, awarded to him by the Japan Art Association in Tokyo, the most important recognition in the artistic field. His work is present in public and private collections both national and international. From the beginning Paolini has accompanied his artistic research with reflections collected in books edited in first person: by Idem, with an introduction by Italo Calvino (Einaudi, Turin 1975), a Four steps. In the museum without muses (Einaudi, Turin 2006) e The author who thought he existed (Johan & Levi, Milan 2012). He also created sets and costumes for theater shows, among which stand out the projects created with Carlo Quartucci in the 80s and the sets for two operas by Richard Wagner directed by Federico Tiezzi (2005, 2007
