Immediately arresting and emanating intense energy, Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio epitomizes the very essence of Lucio Fontana’s iconic artistic practice. With the dawn of the Space Age, ushered in by Yuri Gagarin’s flight in 1961, came an entirely new dimension; this seminal moment in the history of mankind was the catalyst for Fontana’s La fine di Dio, a body of work that radically transformed the canon of twentieth century artistry. Without question Fontana’s most revered and renowned series, today, the Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio paintings have come to represent the ultimate embodiment of not only Fontana’s oeuvre, but the Spatialist movement at large, of which Fontana was both founder and figurehead. Of the 38 canvases in the series, the present work is one of only five examples made in white – two of which are held in the permanent museum collections of Milan's Fondazione Prada and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Tokyo.
In this video Kathleen Hart, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Day Auction, walks through Fontana’s creation of Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio which will be auctioned on 15 November 2023.
