Lucio Fontana

Galleria del Naviglio, Milan
Acquired directly from the above by the family of the present owner in the 1960s

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is slightly deeper and richer in the original. The catalogue illustration fails to convey the three-dimensionality and texture of the blue coloured stones and the punctures in the original. Condition: This work is in good condition. There is minor horizontal cracking along the extreme top centre edge. There is evidence of a repaired tear only visible from the reverse towards the top centre. Examined under ultra-violet light there are signs of inpainting consistent with this repaired tear, at all four corners and at intervals along all four edges and scattered in areas towards the centre of the composition which is very old restoration having taken place in the 1970s.
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This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan.

 

"With my innovation of the hole pierced through the canvas in repetitive formations, I have not attempted to decorate a surface, but on the contrary; I have tried to break its dimensional limitations. Beyond the perforations, a newly gained freedom of interpretations awaits us, but also, and just as inevitably, the end of art"

The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Lucio Fontana, 1966, n.p.

 

This terracotta Concetto Spaziale represents one of the earliest fully-evolved climaxes in the Spatialist investigation that Lucio Fontana had been singularly committed to since first puncturing a canvas in 1949. He had started adding pieces of glass to the painted surface from 1952, which led to his pietre (stones) series, amongst which this is a mature, focused and outstanding example that is exceptional due to its impressive size. Delicately casting gem-like fragments of royal blue across a warm expanse of terracotta, this jewelled painting's sophisticated colour is significant both in its emotional impact on the viewer and in the artist's own context, Fontana having experimented so extensively with terracotta sculpture in the 1930s and '40s. Having initially followed in his father's path and apprenticed as a sculptor, Fontana possessed an intuitive grasp of three-dimensions, which is exhibited here through the diametrically opposed forces of the surface. Cast across the canvas by the artist's hand like sown seeds, the semi-random disposition of pietre stones punctuates the monochrome with lyrical patterns and implied symmetries while their jagged irregularity breaks away from the painted planar surface and gives the work a fundamentally sculptural identity. The dominant circular dynamic of the glass stones is immediately evocative of the spiralling Milky Way galaxy; an analogy that presciently parallels the earliest investigations into Space exploration that were starting to happen at that time and became so important to both Fontana's aesthetic and Spatialist philosophy.

 

A symphony of simultaneous penetration and eruption, the surface of Concetto Spaziale scintillates with the tension of exactly diametric forces. Punctured and exploding, this pitted landscape is both regressive and aggressive, submissively inviting and assertively threatening. The geometric buchi (holes) pierce a window into an unknown space beyond, while the irregular glass pietre are a sculptural assault on space in front of the picture plane.  As Anthony White has explained, "The Spatial Concept engaged the viewer with an opulent vision of radiance that extended into real architectural space beyond the limited and private pictorial plane" (Anthony White, 'Lucio Fontana: Between Utopia and Kitsch', Grey Room, No. 5, Autumn 2001, p. 70). Conceived the year after two solo shows in Milan, as well as exhibitions in Cannes and Madrid, the year of this work also saw shows in Australia, Cincinnati and his participation in the VII Quadriennale Nazionale d'Arte in Rome, which included paintings from this stones cycle. Clearly Fontana's reputation by this time was well-established and Concetto Spaziale is the product of a confident maestro at the height of his creative powers.

 

While the opaque earth red chromatic intensity and swirling lyrical patterns preoccupy our field of view, the lightless intensity of the punched fissures draw our retina as keyholes to the spatial infinity beyond the canvas. The ganzfeld, or total-field, colour suffusion of this work vies with the jagged extremity of the punctuating and beautiful fragments of semi-translucent glass, which phosphoresce like jewels breaking through baked clay. The dominant hue is primal and emotive as the colour of earth, of shelter, and of warmth while the serene blue highlights strike equilibrium as the colour spectrum complimentary to terracotta. The visceral potency of Concetto Spaziale, together with its philosophical project to undermine the precedent of subject-based art, is sufficiently transfixing to suggest "that underlying all of Fontana's art is the desire to find an imagery universal enough in its appeal to usurp centuries of Christian symbolism" (Sarah Whitfield in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Hayward Gallery, Lucio Fontana, 1999, p. 46).

 

Ultimately it is in the invention of a wholly new dialect that secures the historic significance of this piece. Fontana's punctures serve as apertures onto the concept of the never-ending: with material rupture Concetto Spaziale moves not only beyond painting, but also beyond present time and space. This enthralling work confronts the possibilities of an indefinable sculpture in an unknowable space beyond the picture plane. This Concetto Spaziale is both a crescendo of Fontana's cycles to date, as well as the portentous precursor to and facilitator of his furthering of Spatialism with such iconic series as La Fine di Dio, which were to stem directly from this early triumph.