Page 22 - Studio International - November 1972

panels next to or leaning against the wall as if in speak of experimentalism in the context of the
a show in the process of being hung. Instead of new art, Boetti is a case of maximum
paintings we find elements that analyse the experimentalism. For Boetti, as for Paolini,
conventional elements of an exhibition. The but here with open narcissism, the centre of
following year saw the birth of the photographic every work is the artist himself, with all of his
images that show a variety of Paolini's perceptual mutability, psycho-physical
`moments' in his studio. Delfo is a photographic structure, and will for self-glorification. In
canvas that bears a full-size image of the artist 1967-68, Boetti went back to geometry to
and the stretcher of the canvas, with as a result discover new and fantastic laws, printed a poster
an illusionistic identification of the author with that listed a certain number of artists each
Giulio Paolini his own work. The following works tend to marked with a series of secret symbols (the
Nine pictures 1967-71, Seen in Perspective 1972 identify themselves with their environment or to meanings were deposited with a notary) and
Galleria Notizie, Turin
copy their own image. This is the genesis of went from one idea to another without any
Lo spazio the letters of which were distributed obvious connections between them. Cimento
3M/ K 203/3/each one 3o by 40 cms/constant over the four walls of a room. In 1967-68, the dell'armonia e dell'invenzione from 1969 is a
diaphragm and speed/fixed inclination tripod/ game of references and superimpositions collection of works on graph paper, an
1969/the used camera is to retain its original quickened its pace, as in Giovane che guards obsessive labour of tracing; he then went on to
value and adds on its value on the art market/'. Lorenzo Lotto (a photographic reproduction of mosaic structures, each tile of which is marked
This last proposition refers to Prini's Lotto's painting, the title of which refers to the by a progression of geometric signs. In short,
intention of keeping the market price of the vision of the young man who posed in Lotto's Boetti always takes on a system and then works
object equal to its purchase price — which is to studio), or the reproduction of a part of a painting out all of its possible relations from inside it.
say it is to be sold at cost. Among the various by Poussin in which Flora's image is doubled in Retrospectively, his work becomes ever more
considerations of artists like Prini, Pistoletto, such a way as to give the spectator the interesting; many pieces that seemed
Boetti, and others, an important place is given to semblances from which Poussin drew her. His incongruent now assume more precise
the problem of what is to be sold and what is not most recent shows have been dedicated to the meanings in relation to the newer works and
to be sold, and how. It's not so much a theme of 'seeing', and this is the way in which he confirm themselves as brilliant intuitions.
question of a political act against the art market, introduced them : To speak, at this point, about Luciano Fabro
rather an attempt to retain cognizance of the `I cannot say that the show is dedicated to the and his work means to recognize that he has a
market in the very mechanics of the concept true (the visible), just perhaps as it cannot be place all his own, somewhat at a remove from the
upon which the work is based. said that abstract art was born in 1810 with methods that have been described up until now,
The work of Giulio Paolini, an artist whose Ingres's 'errors'. Two days at Montauban are even though the final results are parallel. Since
activity began in 1960, is no less interesting. At an invitation to the possession of the discovery; the beginning of 1963, Fabro's particular
the beginning, and here we cite the artist's own later, a minute is sufficient to extend it (and to attitude has been a question of a close analysis
`curriculum of ideas', Paolini was looking for reduce it) to the inexorable flux of the emotions. of all the elements that concur in the production
absolute images (images inherent to the very The only history behind these works is an of the effects of a work of art. At the beginning,
nature of the canvas) and he made use of absolute dedication to the ancient phenomenon he dealt with structures in situations of
elementary techniques such as tempera and ink. of seeing.' dynamic excitation that modified their forms;
The painting was very soon to cease being In these shows he exhibited a painting by he analysed the factors that lead to these
representative and to become a presence in its Picabia and later another by Joseph Albers modifications along with the visual experience
own right — which is to say that it began to (2 greys +2 greens 1955); he was not so much that these dynamic processes produced.
represent its own elements, the surface, the interested in exhibiting these paintings as From 1967 onwards he has made his
stretcher, the back of the canvas, a can of paint, rather in underlining the operation of 'seeing' `tautologies' and a series of freer and more
and so on. A 1964 show presented wooden things. In a Paolini show, a painting by Albers fantastic objects imbued with an iconographic
constitutes an absolute presence, free of all the irony dominated by a strong critical spirit. The
connections that naturally surround it. 1968 Geodetic World Map consists of a world
Innumerable pieces are dedicated to this map, hung from a cord, that swings with a
absoluteness of vision. pendular geodetic movement. A platform
Paradoxically, Paolini accentuates the theme oriented along the four points of the compass
of vision with works that might perhaps be serves to keep the public from interfering with
better defined as literary rather than visual. the pendular movement of the earth. With his
However, it is also true that the present methods `tautologies' Fabro moved from reflections on
of conceptual art make it difficult to separate visual experience to direct reflections on the
the literary element (which used to be so nature of art. When he was once asked for a
thoroughly looked down upon) from the visual declaration of poetics, he replied with a few
one. This is true for works like those of thoughts drawn from Bacon, the most pertinent
Baruchello and Simonetti as well, works that of which is as follows :
deal with the problem of visibility if not actually `To substitute Chance the Inventor with the
of seeing. adequate method for proficuous reforming
In 1966, Alighiero Boetti made an 'annual invention.'
light' that lights up unexpectedly for ten What finally distinguishes Fabro from the
seconds at some time during the course of every general climate of the fusion (and often
year. This piece could symbolize the operating confusion) of art and aesthetics — of the object
procedure of an artist who up until now has and the subjective experience of the artist — is
moved in many different directions with the high level of autonomy and auto-irony that
illuminated starts, and who has given first place he gives to his pieces, each of which is based
Luciano Fabro
Sculptures (installation shot) 1971 to the discontinuity of ideas rather than to the upon self-sufficient laws. q
Galleria Borgogna, Milan directionality of concept. If it is possible to TOMMASO TRINI