Lucio Fontana *
(Rosario di Santa Fe, Argentina 1899–1968 Comabbio)
Crocifissione, 1957, signed, engobed terracotta, painted under glaze and fired three times in black, red, white, yellow, and gold, 47 x 35 x 9 cm, in Perspex case
This work is registered int the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan under no. 2059/39.
Provenance:
Tornabuoni Arte, London (certificate of provenance available)
European Corporate Collection (acquired from the above)
Exhibited:
London, Lucio Fontana, Tornabuoni Arte, 8 October - 5 December 2015, exh. cat. p. 238
Literature:
L. M. Barbero, Lucio Fontana. Catalogo Ragionato delle Sculture Ceramiche, Skira, Milan 2022, vol. I, p. 313 no. 57 FFC 12 with ill.
Guillame Morel, Une oeuvre complexe in: "Connaissance des arts", volume dedicated to Lucio Fontana. Rétrospective, 7 May 2014, p. 23
Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Antologia Scelta / 2014, tornabuoniArte, Florence 2013, p. 125 with ill.
Working with ceramics was considered by the artist, throughout his entire career, a central field of experimentation for his visionary ideas. In the mid-1950s, Fontana created numerous terracotta works in which light and shadow were incorporated as active compositional elements, and in which the motif of the Crucifixion played a central role. He regarded the subject itself as a metaphor for the overcoming of matter.
The present ceramic strikingly demonstrates how Fontana used the malleability of clay to create a scene of sculptural intensity and emotional density. The figure of the crucified Christ appears to merge both with the cross itself and with the dark, relief-like background. The forms seem frozen in motion. Of particular note is the polychrome glaze: golden accents on the body contrast with deep blues, greens, and browns of the surrounding surface, while targeted red accents heighten the dramatic effect of the composition. The surface appears deeply furrowed, bearing fingerprints and traces of tools, giving the work a direct, tactile presence. A distinctive feature of this “Crocifissione”, compared to other examples within this body of work, is the formal element in the lower right area, which immediately recalls an abstracted figure in mourning.
The work is exemplary of Fontana’s ability to combine the archaic technique of terracotta with the radicalism of the avant-garde. It anticipates the aesthetic destruction of form that would later find its ultimate expression in his monochrome canvases with cuts.
“My sculptural form, from the first to the last works, is never separated from colour. My sculptures were always polychrome. I coloured the plaster, I coloured the terracotta.”
Lucio Fontana
Sale price
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Time, Location
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(Rosario di Santa Fe, Argentina 1899–1968 Comabbio)
Crocifissione, 1957, signed, engobed terracotta, painted under glaze and fired three times in black, red, white, yellow, and gold, 47 x 35 x 9 cm, in Perspex case
This work is registered int the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan under no. 2059/39.
Provenance:
Tornabuoni Arte, London (certificate of provenance available)
European Corporate Collection (acquired from the above)
Exhibited:
London, Lucio Fontana, Tornabuoni Arte, 8 October - 5 December 2015, exh. cat. p. 238
Literature:
L. M. Barbero, Lucio Fontana. Catalogo Ragionato delle Sculture Ceramiche, Skira, Milan 2022, vol. I, p. 313 no. 57 FFC 12 with ill.
Guillame Morel, Une oeuvre complexe in: "Connaissance des arts", volume dedicated to Lucio Fontana. Rétrospective, 7 May 2014, p. 23
Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Antologia Scelta / 2014, tornabuoniArte, Florence 2013, p. 125 with ill.
Working with ceramics was considered by the artist, throughout his entire career, a central field of experimentation for his visionary ideas. In the mid-1950s, Fontana created numerous terracotta works in which light and shadow were incorporated as active compositional elements, and in which the motif of the Crucifixion played a central role. He regarded the subject itself as a metaphor for the overcoming of matter.
The present ceramic strikingly demonstrates how Fontana used the malleability of clay to create a scene of sculptural intensity and emotional density. The figure of the crucified Christ appears to merge both with the cross itself and with the dark, relief-like background. The forms seem frozen in motion. Of particular note is the polychrome glaze: golden accents on the body contrast with deep blues, greens, and browns of the surrounding surface, while targeted red accents heighten the dramatic effect of the composition. The surface appears deeply furrowed, bearing fingerprints and traces of tools, giving the work a direct, tactile presence. A distinctive feature of this “Crocifissione”, compared to other examples within this body of work, is the formal element in the lower right area, which immediately recalls an abstracted figure in mourning.
The work is exemplary of Fontana’s ability to combine the archaic technique of terracotta with the radicalism of the avant-garde. It anticipates the aesthetic destruction of form that would later find its ultimate expression in his monochrome canvases with cuts.
“My sculptural form, from the first to the last works, is never separated from colour. My sculptures were always polychrome. I coloured the plaster, I coloured the terracotta.”
Lucio Fontana
Sale price
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
