On the occasion of Arco Madrid 2025, the exhibition 'Detras de la obra. Giulio Paolini and Luca Bertolo', organised by the Institute of Culture in collaboration with the Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino and the Fondazione Torino Musei, under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Spain. 'Detras de la obra', Behind the Work, brings into dialogue for the first time works by Giulio Paolini (Genoa, 1940) and Luca Bertolo (Milan, 1968), respectively one of the major artists of the avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century and one of the most important Italian painters today. Curated by Elena Volpato, through 17 installations, pictorial and conceptual works, spanning a time span of sixty years, from 1963 to 2024, 'Detras de la obra' recounts a continuous questioning of the reflective nature of art. And on that poetic, conceptual and expressive space that lies "behind the work", revealing its most elusive dimension. The exhibition, which will be open from 8 March to 10 May, is divided into three stages that explore some of the aspects of contact between the two artists: the relationship between the front and back of the canvas, the ambiguous status of the flag as an image and the representation of absence. Three themes, as many as the main exhibition halls of the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid, marked by the symbolic proximity of the painting 'Las Meninas by Velázquez' to the Prado Museum, which constitutes the origin of the reflections
at stake. Paolini was a primary figure in the new avant-garde movements of the second half of the 20th century for his examination of the essential and constitutive elements of the visual work. In their enigmatic presence, he sought the meaning as much of every possible leave-taking from the past as of every possible recognition of the constants of art. Thirty years after Paolini's beginnings, Luca Bertolo began painting from a similar reflection on the primary elements of painting and on the flat surface of the canvas as a space for approaching the image in a negative way. Working within painting, he went on to find paradoxical representations of the impossibility of fully saying oneself and the world. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Allemandi, with texts by the artists and the curator.
"Our Institute has always promoted and valorised contemporary Italian art," says Susi Baldasseroni, acting director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid, "and it is a great privilege for us to be able to exhibit the works of two such significant artists, whom we thank for the generosity and willingness with which they accepted our invitation.
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