Giulio Paolini Overview

One thing we can say about Giulio Paolini's work is that it makes us think. Constantly evolving, from the geometric designs in the 1960s to the later, highly theoretical conceptual works, Paolini's art has always maintained a dynamic vitality, refusing to... [more]

One thing we can say about Giulio Paolini's work is that it makes us think. Constantly evolving, from the geometric designs in the 1960s to the later, highly theoretical conceptual works, Paolini's art has always maintained a dynamic vitality, refusing to settle down into a comfortable, proven path. With a mind that intently explores not just the creative process but also the meaning of art itself, Paolini has tended towards calculated, left-brained art. His 1970-71 piece, "Apotheosis of Homer," is an assembly of musical stands showing photographs of actors playing historical figures -- Richard Harris appears as Oliver Cromwell and so on. Though the piece has no narrative sensibility, Paolini thinks of it as an opportunity for the spectator to choose a new identity: "Each spectator can feel himself reflected in each of the actors, and thus in each of the historical figures and this completes the scene." A description of a recent exhibition addresses the theoretical concerns of the artist, calling his work "a reflection on artistic media, on the art of the past, on representation, on physical and mental time and space, on the absolute, on mimesis and fiction, on the double and the identical, on memory." In other words, Paolini uses art to explore the human mind and the products that the mind creates, particularly, the self. [show less]