GIULIO PAOLINI
(Genova, 1940)
Born in Genoa in 1940, Giulio Paolini is one of the best-known and most successful Italian artists on the international art scene. His research, which can be ascribed to conceptual art, of which he is one of the leading exponents in Italy, has from the outset investigated the complex mechanisms between the work of art and the viewer in a cultured and refined game of cross-references. Through photographs, reproductions, casts and collages, his research analyses the structures of art in a dialectic position with regard to the history of images and their relationship with the viewer. Works such as Giovane che guarda Lorenzo Lotto (1967), together with frequent quotations from masters of the past such as Velasquez, Poussin and Ingres, bear witness to these reflections. In the 1980s Paolini explored the theme of mirroring, reversal and doubles, creating complex installations made from casts of classical statuary, as well as lecterns, empty frames, chairs and books. For Paolini, citation, fragment and evocation are tools for staging his personal theatre of artistic representation enriched by a learned compendium of mythologies and historical memories.
Among his solo and group exhibitions, we can mention: Arte povera - Im-Spazio (Galleria La Bertesca, Genoa, 1967); Arte povera più azioni povere (Arsenali dell'Antica Repubblica, Amalfi, 1968); Gennaio 70. Comportamenti progetti medizioni. 3a biennale internazionale della giovane pittura (Museo Civico, Bologna, 1970); Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, Land Art (Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, 1970); Venice Biennale (Venice, 1970; 1972; 1976; 1978; 1980; 1984; 1986; 1993; 1995; 1997; 2013); Vitalità del negativo nell'arte italiana 1960-70 (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1970); Arte Povera: 13 italienische Künstlern (Kunstverein, Munich, 1971); Documenta (Kassel, 1972; 1977; 1982; 1992); La Quadriennale Nazionale d'Arte (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1973; 1986); Contemporanea (Villa Borghese, Rome, 1973); Avanguardia Transavanguardia 68-77 (Mura Aureliane da Porta Metronia a Porta Latina, Rome, 1982); TV70: Francesco Vezzoli guarda la RAI (Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2017).
