Untitled (Plakat Carton) 1962

Giulio Paolini made this "Untitled (Plakat Carton)" as an art piece that questions the very idea of art itself. Here we see an array of colors, meticulously arranged and mounted, that bring to mind paint sample charts. It is quite likely that these are, in fact, paint samples. Paolini was making this artwork in Italy, a place where in the 1960s and 70s, artists started using everyday objects in their art as a way to challenge traditional ideas about what art should be. They were asking questions like, "What makes something art?" and "Who gets to decide?" The 'Plakat Carton' becomes a statement about the commercialization of art and how the art world can sometimes feel like a catalog of pre-approved options. To understand Paolini's work better, we might look to art journals from the period to see how these artists were interacting and how institutions were responding to their work. By considering the social and institutional context, we can better appreciate the layered meaning in Paolini’s works.