Study for Giuditta and Oloferne, 2015

Giulio Paolini  

Giulio Paolini was born on 5 November 1940 in Genoa and lives in Turin.

His poetics focus on themes that examine the conception, manifestation and vision of the artwork. After his inquiries on the elements that make up a painting, his attention has turned to the act of exhibiting works, to the consideration of the work as a catalogue of its own possibilities, as well as to the figure of the author and his lack of contact with the work, which either pre-exists or transcends him.

Since his first participation in a group exhibition (1961) and his first solo show (1964), he has had countless exhibitions in galleries and museums the world over. His major retrospectives include: Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma (1976), Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1980), Nouveau Musée in Villeurbanne (1984), Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart (1986), Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome (1988), Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz (1998), GAM Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin (1999), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2003), Kunstmuseum in Winterthur (2005), MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma in Rome (2013), and Whitechapel Gallery in London (2014). Among the most recent solo shows should be mentioned those at the Center for Italian Modern Art in New York (dialogue with Giorgio de Chirico's works, 2016) and at Fondazione Carriero in Milan (2018).

He has participated in many Arte povera exhibitions and has been invited on several occasions to Documenta in Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982, 1992) and the Venice Biennale (1970, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2013).

Since 1969 he has also designed sets and costumes for the theatre, notably the projects he devised with Carlo Quartucci in the 1980s and the sets for two Wagner operas directed by Federico Tiezzi (2005, 2007).

Having trained as a graphic designer, he has always nurtured special interest in the field of publishing and writing. From the very outset his artistic exploration has been accompanied by his thoughts, collected in books he has personally edited: from Idem, published in 1975 by Einaudi with an introduction by Italo Calvino, to his most recent publications, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Einaudi, 2006), Dall'Atlante al Vuoto in ordine alfabetico (Milan: Electa, 2010) and L'autore che credeva di esistere (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2012). Many books have been published devoted to Paolini's oeuvre: from the first monograph written by Germano Celant (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972) to the volume by Francesco Poli (Turin: Lindau, 1990) and, lastly, the Catalogue Raisonné of his works dated 1960-1999, edited by Maddalena Disch (Milan: Skira, 2008).

Luca Stefanini

Stefanini Arte – Edizioni Tipertì