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Lucio Fontana

“We are continuing the evolution of art”

- Lucio Fontana

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ACROSS SPACE AND MATTER

In a letter to Giampiero Giani written from Albisola on the 2nd of November 1949, Lucio Fontana specified the identity of his ‘Spazialismo’, as “neither painting nor sculpture, not lines delimited by space, but continuity of space in matter”. His work was a point of radical change, and a field of reflection indispensable for all the successive artists who themselves posed questions over the necessity to reformulate the very conception of artistic work, irrespective of notions such as that of the surface or the object, in order, instead, to reason in terms of active, involving, and immersive spatiality. What Fontana looked for in his work was the creation of a new relation between an individual forced to start out all over again from the (physical and ideological) tabula rasa of the PostWar period, and at the same time, the luminous and mysterious prospect of a cosmos that no longer had confines, but was also becoming increasingly more tangible and obtainable. Fontana translated his ‘spatial’ vision in a continuous experimentation across space and matter: from his terracotta and ceramic pieces, to the opening up of the canvas in his Buchi (‘Holes’) and Tagli (‘Slashes’), into his pioneering Ambienti (‘Environments’). His aim has been to create a possible dialectic between concrete physicalness and conceptual dematerialization, in an idea of creative working as being the redefinition of space as active corporeity, and in which space and matter are often associated with the dimensions of the infinite and the absolute. What we could define as Fontana’s ‘dialectic of possible infinites’ (the infinite possibility of the individual in the infinite possibility of the universe) is achieved in his works in a dynamic proceeding towards the maximum point of the energy of relation between

the individual and the cosmos, which at the end of the 1950s was to arrive at a zero degree of – also operative – concentration: that dimension of ‘Attesa’ (‘expectation’) which is recurrent in the titling of his Tagli. The artist began creating his Concetto Spaziale, Attese (‘Spatial Concept, Expectations’) at the end of 1958, cutting mostly vertical openings into dematerialized and diaphanous surfaces, analogous to those of the previous Inchiostri (‘Inks’) cycle from his personal room at that year’s Venice Biennial. Also commonly known as Tagli (‘Slashes’), they were presented for the first time at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan in February 1959. For Fontana, they materialized a dimension of absoluteness and concentrated the work process into the slash, which supplanted the spatial and materic vortices of the period begun in 1949 with the first Buchi (Holes) and developed with the Barocchi (Baroques). In line with the contemporary international investigations of expressive reduction, as expressed by the artists himself, they aimed at “an impression of spatial calm, of cosmic rigor, of serenity in the infinite.” Acting across space and matter, Fontana developed a modernly and extensively phenomenological perspective that tried to translate a concept into presence, by spanning the physicalness of a complex and dynamic relation with the real and its expansive becoming: in accordance with a dialectic that imbued his way of working midway between close-up penetration and cosmic amplitude, and which made every creative action a new irradiating and polysemous centre. Envisioning his forms of the future, always with renewed inventiveness. FRANCESCA POLA 01

Lucio Fontana ROSARIO DE SANTA FÉ 1899 – 1968 COMABBIO

LIST OF WORKS – PAINTINGS

Concetto Spaziale

Concetto Spaziale, Attese

1951

1959

Mixed technique on paper 45.7 x 48.3 cm / 17.9 x 19 in L. M. Barbero, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo ragionato delle opere su carta, 2013, vol. II, p. 573, no. 51 DSP 64

Signed, titled and dated on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / 1959 Aniline and crayon on canvas 80 x 100 cm / 31.5 x 39.3 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. I, p. 447, no. 59 T 22

Concetto Spaziale

1956

1960

Signed, dated and titled: L. Fontana / 56 / Concetto spaziale Oil, mixed media and sequins on canvas 80 x 70 cm / 31.5 x 27.56 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. I, p. 320, 56 BA 4

Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: L. Fontana Concetto Spaziale 1+1 - AE75 Waterpaint on canvas 60 x 45 cm / 24 x 18.1 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, p. 405, no. 60 B 41

Concetto Spaziale

Concetto Spaziale, Attesa

1957

1960

Signed and dated on the front, signed titled and dated on the reverse Aniline, pencil and collage on canvas 100 x 81.2 cm / 39.4 x 32 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. I, p. 365, no. 57 I 11

Signed on the front, signed titled on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / Attesa Oil on canvas 52 x 45 cm / 20.5 x 17.7 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II, p. 924, no. 60 – 61 V 1

Concetto Spaziale, Attesa 1960

Concetto spaziale, Attesa 1962

Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: 1+1 = 666 / Oggi piove! Waterpaint on canvas 81 x 65 cm / 31.8 x 25.6 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. I, p. 489, no. 60 T 37

Signed on the front: L. Fontana Oil, cuts and graffiti on green canvas 101 x 81 cm / 39.7 x 31.8 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II, p. 579, no. 62 O 25

Concetto Spaziale, Attese

1960-61 Signed twice, titled and inscribed 1+1-887 (on the reverse) Waterpaint on canvas 81.5 x 100.5 cm / 32 x 39.5 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 3956/1

Concetto Spaziale 1961 Signed and titled on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / 1+ 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;AE73 Waterpaint on canvas 94 x 135 cm / 36.6 x 53.1 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. I, p. 409, no. 61 B 11

1962 Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / Attese / Al Cap. Donato / con affetto L. Fontana / 1 + 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; UUT3 Oil and cuts on brown canvas 100 x 81 cm / 39.4 x 31.9 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II, p. 635, no. 62 T 48

Concetto Spaziale, Attesa 1963-1964 Signed and titled on the reverse Waterpaint on canvas 41 x 33 cm / 16.1 x 12.9 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1900/270

04 7

Concetto Spaziale, Attesa 1964

1967

Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: I. Fontana/”Concetto Spaziale”/ Water-based paint on canvas 22 x 16 cm / 8.7 x 6.3 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II p. 719 n. 64 T 82

Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: l. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / Attese / Possibile che / gli uomini / politici / non comprendano Waterpaint on canvas 80 x 65 cm / 31.5 x 25.6 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II, p. 866, no. 67 T 102

Concetto Spaziale, Attese 1965 Signed and titled on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto spaziale / Attese / Domani farà freddo / Waterpaint on canvas 25 x 20.5 cm / 9.8 x 8.1 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II, p. 765, no. 65 T 109

Concetto Spaziale, Attese

Concetto Spaziale, Attese 1967 Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / Attese / nel 1906 quando arrivai a Milano c’erano i tram a cavalli Waterpaint on canvas 93.2 x 73.5 cm / 36.7 x 28.9 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, p. 867, no. 67 T 107

Concetto Spaziale, Attesa

Concetto Spaziale

1966

1967

Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: L. Fontana Concetto Spaziale Attesa / Mi piacerebbe tanto / sapere come si trova / l’uomo sulla luna Waterpaint on canvas 61 x 50 cm / 24.6 x 19.7 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, p. 828, no. 66 T 24

Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale/ Attesa / La giostra girava, / girava... Waterpaint on canvas

Concetto Spaziale, Attese 1968 Signed on the verso: L. Fontana / Attese / Concetto Spaziale / è venuta a trovarmi / Martha Jackson Waterpaint on canvas 60 x 60 cm / 24 x 24 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, p. 888, no. 68 T 110

Lucio Fontana & Egidio Costantini

Concetto Spaziale 1965 Signed and dated twice on the top and on the right side Metal sheet with perforations and 17 glass balls 100 x 82 x 9.5 cm 39.3 x 32.5 x 3.75 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 3571/1

Concetto Spaziale, Attese 1968 Signed, titled and inscribed on the reverse: L. Fontana / Concetto Spaziale / Attese / Chasca mi à portato / Un fluorescente viola / bellissimo Waterpaint on canvas 100 x 80 cm / 39.4 x 31.9 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II p. 874, no. 68 T 12

33 x 24 cm / 13 x 9.5 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, vol. II, p. 850, no. 67 T 2

LIST OF WORKS – CERAMICS Crocifisso (Crucifix) 1947 - 48 Signed and dated l. fontana 49 on the reverse Executed in 1949 Coloured ceramic 81.5 x 37.5 x 32 cm 32.1 x 14.8 x 12.6 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, p. 210, no. 47-48 SC 5, ill. CXVI

Concetto Spaziale 1959-1960 Signed Painted terracotta with slashes Diameter: 50 cm / 19.6 in Registred at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1774/1

Concetto Spaziale circa 1959 Signed Painted terracotta with a slash 42 x 30 cm / 16.5 x 11.8 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1653/16

Concetto Spaziale 1961 - 62 Signed Coloured ceramic 40 x 26 x 5 cm / 15.7 x 10.2 x 1.9 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 2572/2

Concetto Spaziale 1960-63 Signed Painted terracotta, graffito, holes Diameter: 50 cm / 19.6 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1900/266

Concetto Spaziale 1960-65

Concetto Spaziale 1953

1951

Signed and dated 53 Ceramic Diameter: 41 cm / 16.1 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 640/1

Signed Painted terracotta 36 x 25.5 cm / 14.1 x 10 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1678/2

Concetto Spaziale

Concetto Spaziale, Natura

1955-1957 Signed Painted ceramic with holes Diameter: 48 cm / 18.8 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1474/4

Concetto Spaziale

1959 Monogrammed: L. F. Painted terracotta with a slash 15 x 11.5 x 6.5 cm / 5.9 x 4.5 x 2.6 in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, 2006, p. 526, no. 59 N 41, ill. CXCVI

Signed Graffito and painted terracotta 42 x 29.5 cm / 16.5 x 11.6 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 1900/269

Concetto Spaziale Cratere 1968 Signed, numbered and with the text ‘L. Fontana 8/75 ars porcellana/rosenthal relief reihe’ (on a ceramic label attached to the reverse) 38 x 28.5 cm / 15 x 11.2 in Conceived in 1968 and cast in an edition of 75 by Rosenthal

Concetto Spaziale, Natura 1961 Signed Coloured terracotta with a slash 26.5 x 20 x 19.7 cm 10.4 x 7.8 x 7.7 in Registered at the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, no. 3690/1

Lucio Fontana on his work

On Lucio Fontana

The slashes I have done so far above all represent a philosophical space. What I am looking for now, however, is no longer a philosophical but a physical space. In fact, two or three years have been enough and space is no longer an abstraction but has become a dimension in which man can even live, violating it with Jets, with Sputniks and with spaceships. It’s a human dimension capable of causing physiological anguish, dismay on the part of the mind, and in my most recent canvases I am in fact trying to express this sensation.

Consciously looking backwards both from close up, to the intimate awareness of the dynamism profoundly sensed by Italian Futurism as the new determinant of sensibility and of the vision of a possible future modernity, and from afar, to the revolutionary spatial and environmental experience of the Baroque, which shattered the confined spatiality of the Renaissance and offered a scenic dimension of space (from the vision of the city to the imagination of the cosmos), during the middle decades of the twentieth century Fontana’s work announced a fundamental conceptual break by upholding a new dimension of the relationship between human action and spatial fluidity: from the sphere of experience to the spatial infinity of the stars.

(1962) And also my art is entirely based on this purity, on this philosophy of nothing, which is not a nothing of destruction but a nothing of creation. Do you understand? And the cut, really the hole, the first holes, weren’t the destruction of the painting […] it was really a dimension beyond the painting, the freedom of conceiving art by way of whatever means, by way of whatever form. Art isn’t only painting, sculpture: art is a creation of man who can transform it into anything.

ENRICO CRISPOLTI

(1967)

Lucio Fontana ROSARIO DE SANTA FÉ 1899 – 1968 COMABBIO