Giulio Paolini.

FONDAZIONE PRADA

The surface of a white canvas can be mapped out geometrically, but the surface never coincides with its representation. The reproduction of a Renaissance portrait takes on a different perspective when rebaptized Young Man Looking at Lorenzo Lotto, 1967. For Giulio Paolini, art is forever trying to catch sight of its own gaze--and forever escaping. He shows formalism and historicism as equally necessary and equally inadequate systems for coming to terms with art. For this exhibition, organized by Germano Celant, the most severe and intellectual of the poveristi will produce two major new works to accompany a selection of some sixty of his classics from 1960 to 1972. No doubt the old paradoxes will look as flesh as ever. Nov. 5-Dec. 28.