Lucio Fontana

Private Collection, Stockholm (a gift from the artist)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures et Environments Spatiaux, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 188, no. 67 T 7, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 654, no. 67 T 7, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 850, no. 67 T 7, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is brighter and slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals some tiny and unobtrusive paint specks to the upper edge. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Unassuming in its physical manifestation but grand in its conceptual implications, the present Concetto Spaziale, Attesa is a wonderful example of Lucio Fontana’s inventive practice. Elegantly restrained in its monochromatic, white appearance, the single vertical cut in the canvas embodies one of the most radical artistic breakthroughs of post-war art history, completely reconfiguring how painting and its material supports were understood.

Originally presented as a gift by the artist to the wife of Pierre Lundholm (who was behind the influential Galerie Pierre in Stockholm), the present work captures Fontana’s interest in the  physical and philosophical explorations of the canvas, which related to his earlier practice as a sculptor and his ambition to visually activate space. Already articulated in the Manifesto Bianco from 1947 and his subsequent theories on Spatialism, the celebrated taglie are the culmination of his interest in the fourth dimension, which he continued to explore throughout the 1960s. The artist’s revolutionary violation of the sacrosanct picture plane is here expressed in a beautifully subtle manner, simultaneously putting an end to the long-standing painterly illusions of depth on a two-dimensional surface, and initiating a break towards a future of radical possibilities. The artist explained his progressive break: “I’ve never talked (…) about the ‘death of art,’ but rather about the ‘end of art’ in the sense that its function must change, that it’s necessary to keep up with the movement of the world and it’s lack of rules and preconception” (Lucio Fontana quoted in: Pia Gottschaller, Lucio Fontana: The Artist and his Materials, Los Angeles, 2012, p. 20).

Fontana’s decisive break with the painterly traditions of the past was certainly influenced by the radical developments of his time – particularly the exploration of space and Einstein’s theory of relativity. The scientific fusion of space and time into one continuum is indeed echoed by Fontana’s synthesis of dimensions – not only proposing a three-dimensional art on a two-dimensional material support, but suggesting an infinite space beyond the approximate surface of the work. In all its reformist ambitions, Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale, Attesa is an iconic work that captures one of the greatest leaps of twentieth century art history, poised with elgance.