Lucio Fontana

Galerie Schmela, Dusseldorf

Galerie Gunar, Dusseldorf

Sale: Finarte, Milan, 16 October 1986, Lot 187

Private Collection

Sale: Sotheby's, London, 20th Century Italian Art, 16 October 2009, Lot 21

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Milan, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna and Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Mostra della Critica Italiana 1961, 1961-62, p. 40, no. 44, illustrated

Wuppertal, Kunst-und Museumsverein, Hommage à Fontana, 1969, n.p., no. 25

London, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Heinz Mack / Lucio Fontana, 2010, pp. 48-51, illustrated in colour   

London, Ben Brown Fine Arts and Milan, Amedeo Porro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, From De Chirico to Cattelan: A Survey of 20th Century Italian Art, 2012, p. 22, illustrated in colour

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures et Environments Spatiaux, Brussels 1974, Vol. I, p. 376, no. 61 O 65, illustrated, Vol. II, p. 112, no. 61 O 65, illustrated

Enrico Crispolti, Fontana: Catalogo Generale, Vol. I, Milan 1986, p. 376, no. 61 O 65, illustrated

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 564, no. 61 O 65, illustrated 

Amedeo Porro Fine Arts and Ben Brown Fine Arts, Eds., Lucio Fontana, Works from 1936 to 1965, Milan 2015, p. 63, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the white is brighter in the original. Condition: This work is in good condition. There are stable hairline cracks in places, most notably radiating from the central holes and towards the edges as visible in the catalogue illustration. Close inspection reveals a minute loss to the lower centre of the left edge. The short curved incision to the bottom right of the left hand cluster of incised scrawls appears to have been added at a later date. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

With a poetically dynamic composition and serene white surface, Concetto Spaziale is a sublime example of Lucio Fontana’s revered Olii, a series which epitomised both the conceptual and material advancements of the artist’s experimental practice. Executed in 1961, the present work was created alongside Fontana’s highly acclaimed Venezia cycle of the same year. However, in contrast to the opulent Baroque aesthetics of the Venezie works, Concetto Spaziale is an elegantly refined reduction of the painterly virtuosity that defined the Olii. Revealing a luscious material density, gracefully asymmetrical composition, and sophisticated aesthetic pureness, it is a consummate summation of Lucio Fontana’s idiosyncratic artistic language.

Concetto Spaziale’s unqiue composition both evokes figuration and epitomises abstraction. Its resplendent form mediates between painting and sculpture. To achieve the dense surface texture Fontana smothered the canvas in lavish layers of thick paint. Immersed within a sweeping semi-circular central shape are viscerally incised scrawls and three forcibly pierced bucchi. In order to facilitate this extravagant working method it had been necessary for Fontana to develop new materials as the viscosity of conventional oil paint caused thick areas to sag and change shape during the lengthy drying period. As proved by Barbara Ferriani and others, between 1960 and 1961 Fontana started to add a stearic-acrylic resin to oil paint as a hardener to achieve his unique impasto, which he could manipulate further during its faster drying time (Barbara Ferriani in: Exhibition Catalogue, Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection; New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lucio Fontana: Venice/New York, 2006, p. 222).

Reaching his artistic maturity in the aftermath of World War II, a time of radical social, political and technological change, the artist was profoundly impressed by the restless achievements of science, and in particular by space exploration. Just as the Futurists, at the beginning of the century, had tried to capture the essence of modern life, Fontana aspired to find a poetic articulation and an aesthetic metaphor for the conquest of space. Fontana investigated new solutions of rendering this sense of 'spatial dynamism', inspired in his pictorial and sculptural innovations by the legacy of Futurism and Baroque, which the artist formalised in his treatise Manifiesto Blanco (1946). Painted at the same time as Yuri Gagarin's momentous first manned flight into space, Concetto Spaziale beautifully conveys the artist's fascination with the mysteries of space and matter.

Stunningly beautiful as a transcendent manifestation of Spatialism, Lucio Fontana's masterful Concetto Spaziale is compelling proof of this artist's genius and tireless innovation.