Lucio Fontana

Private collection, Germany

Louisa Guinness Gallery, London

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Germano Celant, The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1994, no. 292, p. 270 for pink version

Luisa Somaini and Claudio Cerritelli, Gioielli D'artista in Italia: 1945-1995, Electa, Milan, 1995, p. 17

Diana Küppers, Künstlerschmuck = objets d'art, Hirmer, Munich, 2009, p. 86 for version in red

Diane Venet, From Picasso to Jeff Koons: The Artist as Jeweler, Skira, Milan, 2011, p. 204 for pink version

Diane Venet, Bijoux d'Artistes, de Calder à Koons, la collection idéale de Diane Venet, Flammarion, Paris, 2018, p. 84 for pink version

Lucio Fontana was constantly slashing, puncturing, and learning how to manipulate space in new ways. His Ellisse con fori concetto spaziale bracelet is a result of testing the limits of a monochromatic flat oval by puncturing it and allowing light to penetrate from behind. Fontana‘s collaboration with GianCarlo Montebello (GEM) for this piece involved the use of industrial lacquers to cover his thick silver bracelet with a single color of enamel - in this case white - referencing the Manifesto Blanco he wrote in 1947 which laid the groundwork for his ‘spatial concepts’ (concetti spaziali), a term he used throughout his career that was extremely important for his work. Here, spatial art is taken to a new level both figuratively and literally as this bracelet links the activity of Fontana's canvases to personal adornment. It allows the wearer to actually become part of the art, transporting and transposing the spatial concept of the work into their life and Fontana’s vision of the future.