Lucio Fontana

Galerie Françoise Mayer, Brussels
Acquired by the present owner from the above in the early 1970s

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogue Raisonné des peintures, sculptures et environments spatiaux rédigé, Vol. II, Brussels, 1974, cat. no. 65 T 113, p. 166, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Fontana Catalogo generale, Volume secondo, Milan, 1986, cat. no. 65 T 113, p. 580, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Nini Ardemagni Laurini, Valeria Ernesti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Tomo II, Milan, 2006, cat. no. 65 T 113, p. 765, illustrated

This painting is in excellent condition. There is a minute pinhead loss to the inside left edge of the leftmost slash, 8 inches from its bottom and one to the inside left edge of the rightmost slash, 8 inches from its bottom, which are most likely inherent to the work's execution. There is an extremely faint, thin and short ⅛ inch rubmark towards the extreme bottom right corner tip, and two more to the extreme overturn bottom edge, 2¼ inches from the bottom right corner. Under UV, there are no apparent restorations. The canvas is framed in a wood strip frame painted white with a small float.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"The Infinite, the inconceivable chaos, the end of figuration, nothingness."  
Lucio Fontana, Exh. Cat., London, Hayward Gallery, Lucio Fontana, 1999-2000, p. 198

Recorded and illustrated in the 1976, 1984 and 2006 editions of Enrico Crispolti’s catalogue raisonné, yet never before seen in public, having resided in the same private collection for the past four decades, Lucio Fontana's supremely lyrical Concetto spaziale, Attese is a majestic paragon of the iconic incisions that are so synonymous with his groundbreaking art. A progression of assured cuts across an elegant lilac canvas, its brightness amplified through contrast with the plunging black recesses, this work is a perfect expression of Fontana’s search for "The Infinite, the inconceivable chaos, the end of figuration, nothingness."  (Lucio Fontana, Exh. Cat., London, Hayward Gallery, Lucio Fontana, 1999-2000, p. 198)  The artistic theory behind the creation of the Tagli (cuts), and before them the Buchi (holes), was professed in Fontana's first manifesto, the Manifesto Blanco, published in 1946. Here Fontana proposed the birth of a new 'spatialist' art which sought to articulate the 'fourth dimension.' In this quest, Fontana proposed the artist as the source of creative energy, anticipating future events and engaging with technological advancement. The artist's work should aspire to enlighten ordinary people to the possibilities offered by their environment and society. Ceaselessly engaged with the scientific and technical evolutions achieved throughout the Twentieth Century, he incorporated these ideas into his art with a dynamic exploration of method, material and medium. Since first puncturing his canvas in 1949, Fontana had been singularly committed to the Spatialist mission to explore the conceptual depths beyond the limits of the two-dimensional picture plane. A few years following the punctures and piercings of the Buchi, Fontana sharpened his gesture: the elaboration of the hole finds its definitive expression in the elegantly vigorous Tagli which would dominate Fontana's oeuvre thereafter.

This is as much a conceptual leap as it is a visual one, with the space created by the slash standing for the idea of a space without physical boundaries. Fontana was fascinated by space and energy as invisible elements essential to both life and art. For him the taglio was the distillation of pure space and pure energy in a single gesture. Fontana began his process of making the slits by painting the canvas ground with industrial emulsion in pure monochrome. While the canvas surface was still damp he placed it on an easel and executed the cut with a Stanley-knife in a single, precise downward movement. The canvas was then left to dry, the incision in place. There was no room for error: if the cut deviated from Fontana's desired line, the entire canvas was discarded, the work destroyed. The cut, as unrepeatable as a brushstroke, could not be corrected. Once the slit was made Fontana would enlarge the furrow with his hand, gently opening the sides of the cut in an act akin to a 'caress', as one close observer described it. To hold the cut in place, Fontana applied black gauze to the reverse, covering the cut from top to bottom. The final gesture would complete the work: the lightest touch of his hand would ease the edges of the incision slightly inwards, instilling a suggestion of three-dimensional form to the flat canvas.

With Concetto Spaziale, the viewer is presented with a masterful example of the Tagli series, where apparently abstract cuts elicit an intense emotional reaction from the viewer. The ineluctable smoothness of the purple pigment saturates the canvas like blood seeping from an open wound. Onto this seductive field of color precise and rhythmic incisions dance across the surface, penetrating as they traverse the picture plane. Each slit is of almost equal length, the harmony deliberately upset by Fontana's angling of the cuts, and the squeezing constriction of the intervals in between. With nervous energy and dynamic force, space pulses through the openings. The striking color of the ground dramatically sets off the absence of color of the open incisions. We feel the sharpness of the cut, the dagger-like knife which slits and violates the pure unadulterated canvas field. The edges of each slit, as if recoiling from an assault, curl inwards creating rhythmic curved recessions leading our eye into the darkly imagined space beyond. Compositionally dynamic and mesmerizing in its beauty, Concetto Spaziale, Attese embodies the artist's revolutionary spatial theories while engendering a unique dialogue with the symbolic value of color and form.