Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia at Palazzo Carpegna, Rome

The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome presents Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia. Conceived by Marco Tirelli and curated by Antonella Soldaini, the exhibition features six unpublished works specifically created for Palazzo Carpegna. The artist’s thought-provoking conceptual works combine diverse media – painting, photography, and sculpture, to create poetic and introspective spaces.

Giulio Paolini, A come Accademia, partial view of the exhibition, 2023, The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, IT © Andrea Veneri

Paolini is a prominent Italian artist often associated with the Arte Povera movement. Although he took part in several of their shows during the late 1960s, his artwork possesses a distinct style that cannot be easily classified or confined to the movement. His art questions the very nature of Art and the role of the artist. The artist draws from past masterpieces and recontextualises the artistic canon. This deliberate use of art history emphasises the continuum of the past and present. Many of his works amalgamate additive dynamics, such as repetition and juxtaposition, to generate analytical and poetic atmospheres.

Throughout his career, Paolini has developed complex research methodologies that focus on the systems of creating and exhibiting art. He continues to interrogate the medium and meaning of art.

Giulio Paolini, A come Accademia, partial view of the exhibition, 2023, The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, IT © Andrea Veneri

This exhibition investigates art in its essential components– the artist, the artwork, the institutions, the public and the relationship with history. The exhibition aims to illustrate the transparent sedimentation of creating art as a continuum upon which the past is the basis for future artistic creation. The dynamically charged sculptures and installations serve to disintegrate the rigid narrative of art production. Paolini’s work illustrates the transparent formations of creating art and how it evolves over time.

In the words of Marco Tirelli, artist and current president of the Accademia di San Luca: “Paolini’s work brings us back (or rather keeps us), therefore, in a high, reflective, deep, enigmatic, metaphysical vision of art and, in its lightness, restores weight, meaning and interrogative value to Art. His research questions the nature of artistic expression and the role of its performer, which poses enigmas and presents his work as part of a long continuum with every artist who has ever existed and exists”.

Giulio Paolini, A come Accademia, partial view of the exhibition, 2023, The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, IT © Andrea Veneri

Promoted and organised by the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and supported by the President of the Italian Republic, it opened soon after the artist received the Japanese Praemium Imperiale for Painting in 2022. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue by Gangemi Editore, which includes an introduction by Marco Tirelli, an interview with Giulio Paolini by Antonella Soldaini and texts by Francesco Guzzetti, Giulio Paolini, Antonella Soldaini, and Claudio Strinati.

Giulio Paolini, A come Accademia, partial view of the exhibition, 2023, The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, IT © Andrea Veneri

Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia is on view at the National Academy of San Luca in Rome from April 19 to July 15, 2023. Giulio Paolini (b.1940, Italy) lives and works in Turin, Italy. Today, Paolini’s works are part of prominent collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Tate Modern in London, and many others.

Contact us for more information on Giulio Paolini.