Paolo Conti. Catalog Raisonné I. GALV 1969-1973

Introduction to the General Catalog

of Leonardo Conti

The archiving work of Paolo Conti's works began in 2012. Given the variety of cycles that the artist has produced since 1968, also in relation to the diversity of the materials used from time to time, it was decided to divide the General Catalog into subsequent thematic volumes.
Up to now, Conti's works can be divided into nine cycles: "Colature", "Rags", "HEAD", "Sculptures", "Circles and Fragments", “Tele”, Prisoners in the plane and Erosions ", "Prisoners in Space" and "Cards".
The idea of ​​starting with this Catalog Raisonné I "GALV 1969-1973", arises from the consideration that it is from this moment that Paolo Conti's research focuses on its unmistakable forms. The artist's exhibition history also begins with these works. The first two important solo shows, at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1971, curated by Franco Farina and Marcello Azzolini, and at the La Nuova Loggia gallery in Bologna in 1972, edited by Renato Barilli, are dedicated to "GALVs".
This first volume is introduced by two critical texts. One by Valerio Dehò who curated two recent Paolo Conti exhibitions, respectively "The labyrinth", dedicated to the "Prisoners in space" in 2014 and just "GALV", in 2015. The other introduction is by Giovanni Granzotto, who has been paying great attention to Conti's research for years: he curated the “Paolo Conti. Works on canvas " (2002) and “Paolo Conti. Eight identities for an archeology of the future "with Renato Barilli (2005). Giovanni Granzotto also invited the artist, on several occasions, to thematic exhibitions in important museums and private galleries (2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2017). He can therefore be considered among the greatest connoisseurs of Paolo Conti's research.
Introduction to the photographic catalog of the works è, then, the Note by Sara Bastianini, in which he realizes the method adopted by the Accounts Archive and how the technical sheets of the works were composed. Finally, some statistical indications are given relating to the "GALV" cycle.
A text by the writer closes the Catalog of images, searched - using two different registers, one narrative and the other critical - to tell the most significant biographical-artistic events of Conti over the years 1969-1973, and to deepen some themes present in this cycle of works. It was possible to create the biographical-artistic part thanks to the period materials present in the Archive and, mostly, to the artist's mnemonic efforts in months of conversation.
In the last section of this Catalog Raisonné I, called Apparati, the two period texts by Marcello Azzolini have been incorporated in their entirety (1971) and Renato Barilli (1972), with reproductions of the covers of the respective catalogs that contain them. Also, in the catalog there is a written / testimony of the gallery owner Giampaolo Paci, whose deep artistic partnership with Paolo Conti has produced countless exhibition and editorial projects over the years.
The volume ends with a biographical note and the artist's exhibition curriculum, accompanied by a selection of archive images that hopefully will be useful for projecting this Catalog Raisonné I, towards the subsequent cycles of the artist's research, to which the next volumes of the General Catalog will be dedicated.