Paolini was a member of the arte povera movement which began in Italy and was chiefly active in the 1970s. In the early 1960s, the artist conducted research into the mimicking of reality within painting. One area of interest to him was perspective drawings: an opportunity to conjure up three-dimensional space within the flat surface of the canvas. Pencil lines appeared on his white canvases which allude, amongst other things, to the rules of scientific perspective that have been used for centuries. Paolini’s works gradually became more complex, with the canvases forming spatial installations on the wall and receiving mythological or art-theoretical titles.
