Giulio Paolini: To Be or Not to Be

9 July – 14 September 2014

Italian artist Giulio Paolini (b. 1940, lives and works in Turin) immerses us in elegant installations of canvases, windows, fragments of statuary and checkerboards – sometimes presented by 18th century footmen. Believing that every work of art embodies earlier traditions, Paolini pays tribute to artists such as Chardin, Lotto and Velazquez. His own face, hands and eyes reappear throughout the show, as he asks Hamlet’s question of the artist.

From To Be or Not to Be (1994–95) where canvases radiate across the floor into infinity to the existential drama of The Author Who Thought He Existed… (2013), Paolini takes us on an exhilarating journey through five decades of work exploring perception and creativity.