Académie 3, 1965 Oil and photo emulsion on canvas 165 x 115 cm Private collection, Turin The photographic canvas – achieved by overlapping two negatives – portrays the artist in a slightly curved position before a blank canvas, in the role of the painter at work. On the canvas Paolini made a pictorial gesture with blue oil (whose brand is referred to in the title), so as to create a paradox: the sign of the colour drops down behind the painter, while the canvas before him remains perfectly blank. The actual application of colour on the canvas – the artist’s physical gesture, the concrete trace on the pictorial support – has no other purpose than to evoke the absence of a relationship (or the refusal of a direct relationship) between the artist and his painting. Before the canvas the painter confronts himself critically with the act of painting; rather than subordinating the canvas to his gesture, he chooses to wonder about the very concept of painting and the painting. In addition to the use of the photograph, the introduction of the figure of the artist and his relationship with the work is the main theme of Paolini’s output in 1965. “Photography gives me the opportunity to expand the language and thus include the gestures and the very figure of the author in my exploration”.1 1 The artist in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini, New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972, pp. 47-48 (reprinted in G. Celant (ed.), Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003, p. 148). Cf. also the works entitled 1421965 (1965) and 1/25 (1965) recorded in the "Works/Public Collections/France/Paris/Musée national d’art moderne” and “Works/Public Collections/Italy/Rivoli and Turin” sections, respectively, in this website. Exhibition chronology and bibliography cf. M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, Milan: Skira editore, 2008, vol. 2, p. 888, cat. no. 82. © Maddalena Disch .