Atto I: Giulio Paolini

The show at Tommaso Calabro Gallery, Milan, is dedicated to Giulio Paolini’s work “Sir Lawrence Dundas and his Grandson” (1977), exhibited on this occasion to the public for the first time. The exhibition inaugurates the “Atti” cycle, which will foster the encounter with lesser-known single works by Post-war Italian masters. Through the display of a selection of archival documents, “Atto I: Giulio Paolini” offers the opportunity to discover the photographic research of one of the most radical conceptual artists of the twentieth century.

“Sir Lawrence Dundas and his Grandson” is a photographic reproduction of a namesake painting executed by German painter Johann Zoffany in 1769. In his work, Paolini creates an estranging feeling by replacing the canvases hung in Lawrence Dundas’ studio with reproductions of Zoffany’s work, which is thus repeated eight times. Playing with the contrast between authenticity and repetition, Paolini investigates the ambiguity and limits of the visual language.