Giulio Paolini Fuochi d'artifici (Whistler, Manet, Baudelaire) / Fireworks (Whistler, Manet, Baudelaire), 2017

“Fireworks (Whistler, Manet, Baudelaire)” represents two painters, James Whistler and Edouard Manet standing, and the writer Charles Baudelaire in a seated pose, exactly as portrayed by Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) in the painting “Tribute to Delacroix," 1864.   

In Paolini's collage, the three figures are extrapolated from the original context becoming silent presences against a background of fireworks, taken from a painting in Whistler’s Nocturnes series. In the white box at the center of the composition, modern day fireworks illuminate the scene.  It is a fitting overlap of favorite authors and beloved paintings, inscribed in the artificial yet richly fascinating light of fireworks.