LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968) Concetto spaziale, Attese

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN COLLECTION
LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968)
Concetto spaziale, Attese
signed and inscribed 'l. fontana attese 1+1-AE2' (on the reverse)
waterpaint on canvas
31 7/8 x 39 in (81 x 99 cm)
Painted in 1959
Provenance
Marlborough Galleria d'Arte, Rome, no. RM 058.
Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, no. 10732.
Galleria Levi, Milan, no. 617/P.
Studio La Città, Verona.
Galleria Corvucci, Forlì.
Acquired from the above by the previous owner in 1973.
Gifted from the above to the present owner.

Exhibited
Turin, Galleria Notizie, Lucio Fontana (opere dal 1931 al 1959), 1959 (illustrated p. 8).

Literature
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogue raisonné des peintures, sculptures et environnements spatiaux, vol. II, Brussels, 1974, no. 59 T 87 (illustrated p. 86).
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo Generale, vol. I, Milan, 1986, no. 59 T 87 (illustrated p. 295).
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. I, Milan, 2006, no. 59 T 87 (illustrated p. 461).

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"I do not want to make a painting; I want to open up space, create a new dimension, tie in the cosmos, as it endlessly expands beyond the confining plane of the picture."
– Lucio Fontana

Lucio Fontana was a pioneer and experimental artist of the highest order. Regarded as the architect of the Spazialismo movement, his pursuit of new dimensions and passages in painting broke from traditional notions of art and embraced completely novel forms of expression that incorporated space and time. Fontana believed that art was destined to be freed from its two-dimensional surface and extend into metaphysical space. His iconic Tagli or 'slashes' were his greatest visual triumph. These were deliberate incisions made with a blade into the painted surface of the canvas, creating steep cuts that allowed the spectator to glimpse a plane beyond the painting. Fontana regarded his Tagli as windows into another dimension. In many regards, it is the final act of painting; the destruction of the single, illusory surface that had been the cornerstone of art making, giving way to the space beyond.

The intentional compositions and layers of symbolism found in Fontana's Tagli are a true testament to the depth and sophistication with which he approached his concept. The present work, Concetto spaziale, Attese from 1959 is an extremely rare example owing to its rhomboid-shaped canvas and high number of unmistakably elegant slashes – fourteen – incised in three discrete bands over white. The movement and distribution of these cuts is a measure of energy and dispersion. A spiritual release that breaks the tension of the stretched canvas in an intense, rhythmic timbre. Irregularly shaped, the power of the present work is bound in its rejection of painterly norms and the boldness to suggest a new form of art. Not only does Fontana use destructive force as a tool for creation, but – as his title, Concetto spaziale nods to – he creates an open field of ideas and meditations on what this advanced world might contain. It is a painting in its medium alone; its concept is far larger than that. This is the poetry of Fontana's Tagli and the present work, the heart of his thesis, and what makes him an incomparable force of twentieth century art.

Fontana's gestural slashes on the flat picture plane upended the notion of picture-making, giving, as Fontana describes, the "spectator an impression of spatial calm, of cosmic rigor, of serenity in infinity" (the artist quoted in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni, vol. I, Milan, 2006, p. 105). The seemingly random and spontaneous, yet highly precise cuts on the canvas portray the cosmos of an unknown dimension, setting his creations free from the universally accepted limitations of the flat surface. Fontana wrote "the discovery of new physical forces and the control of matter and space will gradually impose new conditions that have not been previously known to man in the entirety of the course of history. The application of these discoveries to all the modalities of life will produce a modification in the nature of man. Man will take on a new psychic structure" (the artist quoted in Guido Ballo, L. Fontana: Idea per un ritratto, New York, 1971, p. 186). His writings, which are inextricably linked to his work reveal his aim of creating new contemporary art which remained rooted in astrophysical scientific developments of the time.

Ugo Mulas, Italian photographer and friend of Fontana recalls the artist's explanation of his process: "sometimes I leave the canvas hinging there for weeks before being sure what I'm going to do with it and only when I feel sure, do I start" (Ugo Mulas quoted in G. Celant, Lucio Fontana, Ambienti Spaziali: Architecture Art Environments, Milan, 2012, p. 318). Before making any cuts, Fontana would conceptualize the spatial aspect of the artwork, envisioning his cut canvases as a way to break the traditional boundaries of painting, allowing the viewer to perceive depth and space. Concetto Spaziale, Attese, clearly demonstrates the artist's curated thought process behind his compositions, giving us a possible insight to the title, Attese, here meaning 'the wait'.

Born in Argentina in 1899 and moving to Italy in 1905, Fontana lived through some of the most unstable years of the twentieth century. That experience, alongside his initial training as a sculptor is clearly recognized in works from the Tagli series as he rejected the confinement of physical materials and the physical space of a canvas. The artist's clever balance of impulse and manipulation, seen through his vertical slashes, gives the viewer a sense of a dramatic, yet confident search for a self-created dimension, intended to be found within the canvas itself. Clear influences of Europe in the aftermath of two devastating world wars, alongside the Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s can be seen in Fontana's ideology, which has a firm focus on space and abstract dimensions.

Fontana's revolutionary concepts and manifestos had a deep and far-reaching impact on the development of contemporary art. They marked a dramatic shift in post-war practice that laid the foundations for Minimalism and Conceptualism. With works held in museum collections around the world, including the Tate collection in London, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, he remains hugely important and influential as one of the twentieth century's most important artists.