Murali di carta

The earliest works that survive in the archive are the Plinio cycle — installations made between roughly 1971 and 1979 in Paul's first Roman studio in via Plinio. They include large paper murals (some near 3 by 6 metres), zinc boxes paired with papier-mâché, mesh-and-plaster sculptures, and the 1978–79 installation Vertical Art.

The Plinio works are concerned with sculptural lightness. They take the materials of poverty — newspaper, paper, plaster, mesh — and treat them with the seriousness of stone. The 1975 invitation to the studio reads simply Tre murali di carta di Paul Klerr: three paper murals, no further explanation.

The cycle is small in number (eight works in the archive) but it is the foundation everything else is built on. The interest in pulped paper that returns 35 years later as the cartapesta wall reliefs begins here.