Giulio Paolini

(Italy 1940– )

Title

L'altra figura

Other titles:

The other figure

Year

1984

Media

Sculpture

Medium

plaster

Dimensions

183.0 x 250.0 x 190.0cm installed :
a-b - two plaster busts; 65 x 45 x 30cm; each
c - pieces of broken bust; variable

Signature & date

Not signed. Not dated.

Credit

Mervyn Horton Bequest Fund 1987

Accession number

349.1987.a-c

Copyright

Location

Entrance court

Further information

Guilio Paolini came to international note as a leading member of the arte povera group in Italy in 1967. Like the others, he uses found materials and often introduces historical and literary references into his imagery. Works such as this have a poetic quality that is common with arte povera and yet there is a strong conceptual and critical streak that is not normally associated with the group. Many of his installations directly critique assumptions about art history and play with the rules of perspective to disclose their paradoxical illusionism.

‘L’altra figura’ (the other figure) is a deceptively simple play on the classical theme. The two heads raised on plinths to the height of a modestly sized viewer are identical plaster casts of a Roman copy of an earlier Hellenistic bust. The busts show the heads slightly at an angle to the body, their faces turned to reflect each other precisely. This slightly sideways glance lends a degree of animation to what would otherwise be a static mirroring. It is as if they have both just turned to catch the other's gaze; perhaps it is the dramatic incident that has just occurred between them. On the floor surrounding the two plinths is the manifest evidence of a minor disaster. Another bust that seems to have crashed to the floor, shattering into multiple pieces of plaster, is just barely recognisable as the third of a kind. The twins may be thought of as a related pair or a mirroring of one but three is the beginning of an indefinite number, suggesting infinite reproducibility or endless cloning.

A common theme of Paolini’s work investigates representational strategies in art since the Renaissance, including modernist aspirations to find the essence of things. Mirroring is the most immediate form of mimetic representation so it is reasonable to begin to see this as a work that follows this line. The Greco-Roman heads also incline us to suspect narratives from antiquity.

Could the smashed figure lying on the ground, in a more-or-less circular arrangement, be the rippled effect of the reflection in a pool disturbed by Narcissus reaching out to caress his own loved image? This would certainly be a poetic take on the impossibility of possessing the desired object in representation.

The degree of fragmentation of the third head also suggests a fall from a great height; could this be the mythical Icarus, who ignored his father’s warning not to fly too close to the sun? This pragmatic warning masks a greater peril since the sun is Apollo riding across the sky in his chariot. Apollo for Plato was the ultimate source of pure form, something representation could never capture, although neo-Platonists and modernists dreamt of doing so. Poor Icarus got carried away and soared towards this great source but was struck down by the jealous god for his presumption.

Bibliography (11)

Mortality (2010), Juliana Engberg (Australia) (Author), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1984).

Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection (2006), Anthony Bond (England; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874).

Look (Jun 2004), Jill Sykes (Australia) (Editor), 10pm [print management] (Australia), Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald (25 Sep 2002), Paul McGeough (Australia) (Editor), John Fairfax & Sons (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Art Monthly Australia (Jun 2002), Deborah Clark (Australia) (Editor), Art Monthly Australia Pty Ltd (Australia), Acton, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Arte Povera: Art from Italy 1967-2002 (2002), Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1989), Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1989), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook (1999), Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections (1994), Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Great gifts, great patrons: an exhibition celebrating private patronage of the Gallery (1994), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The 1988 Australian Biennale: From the Southern Cross: a view of world art c1940-1988 (1988), Nick Waterlow (Australia) (Director), ABC Enterprises (Australia), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook (1988), Annabel Davie (Editor), Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Exhibition history (7)

Australian Biennale 1988: From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art c1940-1988, (04 Aug 1988–18 Sep 1988), at National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road] (Australia, estab. 1968, closed 1999), 180 St Kilda Road Melbourne Victoria Australia 3000.

Acquisitions from the Komon, Salkauskas and Horton Funds, (05 May 1987–31 May 1987), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Mortality, (07 Oct 2010–28 Nov 2010), at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1984), Dallas Brooks Drive South Yarra Melbourne Victoria Australia 3141.

Great gifts, great patrons, (17 Aug 1994–19 Oct 1994), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Revolutions - Forms That Turn: 2008 Biennale of Sydney, (18 Jun 2008–07 Sep 2008), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain Sydney New South Wales Australia 2000.

Australian Biennale 1988: From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art c1940-1988, (18 May 1988–03 Jul 1988), at Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Art Gallery Rd Domain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2000.

Arte Povera: Art from Italy 1967-2002, (23 Aug 2002–10 Nov 2002), at Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia, estab. 1989), Circular Quay West The Rocks Sydney, New South Wales Australia 2000.