Corso di laurea magistrale in Storia dell'arte

The topics considered and the specific skills aimed at developing are an essential part of the contents necessary to the educational path of the Master's Degree in History of Art. In detail, this course focused on artistic experiences in Italian and International context between 1945-90.

The student is expected to write a paper about one of the topics covered in class, demonstrating knowledge of the relevant literature and of art historical methodology.

Giulio Paolini in the Italian and international art of his time

Active in Turin for more than sixty years, Giulio Paolini is a leading protagonist in Italian and international art. Although adhering to a group - Germano Celant's Arte povera since 1967 - and working in tune with the conceptual sensibility that matured in the same period, Paolini has conducted a substantially autonomous research, whose originality has often anticipated the dominant trends. Since his beginnings in 1960, his work has been distinguished by his attention to the mental values of making art. He insists on the constituent elements of the painting, the space of representation, the figure of the author, and the relationship between the work and the viewer. It lacks any autobiographical or psychological appeal in favor of a discourse on the status of art. The statements and texts with which the artist accompanied the works accentuate the deeply reflective nature of his research. The course will address Paolini's work at its essential junctures, giving an account of its recurring themes as well as its models and repercussions on the research of his contemporaries. 

Course of 36 hours (6 CFU), with slides and discussion in classroom to which 10 seminar-type hours will be added. The students who are not able to attend face-to-face lectures may access teaching material on the Moodle platform and, instead of attending face-to-face lectures, study the following literature (in addition to the compulsory literature); the professor will offer his/her support to study and prepare for the exam with online meetings (dates will be provided in the news section).

At the end of the course, the student is required to write a paper on a specific topic dealt with during the lessons that shows adequate knowledge of the bibliographical tools and methods of contemporary art history.

The attainment of an organic vision of the topics addressed in class, together with a good critical capacity, mastery of expression and specific language, will be assessed with marks very good or excellent (28-30 cum laude); mainly mnemonic or not well-developed acquisition of the contents and linguistic and logical skills that are not always adequate will be assessed with marks ranging from fair (21-24) to good (25-27); a minimum level of knowledge of the course content, combined with inadequate training gaps or inadequate linguistic and logical skills, will lead to an assessment of sufficiency (18-20); absence of a minimum level of knowledge of the course content, combined with inadequate linguistic and logical skills and training gaps, will lead to an assessment of insufficiency.

In addition to the 36 hours of the course, there are 10 hours of seminar activities, at times to be agreed upon.

For students with DSA or disabilities, please review the University's arrangements for reception (https://www.unito.it/accoglienza-studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa) and support (https://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/studenti-e-studentesse-con-disabilita), and in particular the procedures required for exam support (https://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/studenti-e-studentesse-con-disturbi-specifici-di-apprendimento-dsa/supporto).

Attending and not:

G. Celant, Giulio Paolini, Sonnabend Press, New York 1972.

I. Calvino, La squadratura, in Giulio Paolini, Idem, Einaudi, Torino 1975, pp. VII-XIV.

F. Menna, La linea analitica dell’arte moderna, Einaudi, Torino 1975.

M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, Skira editore, Milano 2008, da consultare insieme al sito https://www.fondazionepaolini.it/ita/

D. Viva, La storia in abisso. Letteratura, fotografia e passato, in S. Bann, D. Soutif, D. Viva, C. Zambianchi, Giulio Paolini. Il passato al presente, Corraini-Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Mantova-Torino 2016, 45-52.

F. Fergonzi, Trasparenza etimologica. Per una rilettura di Una lettera sul tempo (1968) di Giulio Paolini, in Giulio Paolini, Expositio, catalogo della mostra, a cura di E. Coen, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo 2016, pp. 22-37.

F. Belloni, Il tutto nell'uno. Giulio Paolini e Jorge Luis Borges, in “Prospettiva”, n. 186, aprile 2022, pp. 78-87.

Classes will be held from September 19 to October 25.