Spatial Concept, Waits, 1959, oil on canvas, 35 7/8 × 35 7/8 × 3/4 in.
©Foto Massimo Listri
Lucio Fontana (Rosario 1899 – Comabbio 1968)
Lucio Fontana is a sculptor, painter and theorist, internationally renowned as one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century. Fontana’s rupture of the surface of painting had a widespread impact on generations of artists in exploring the dynamics of how painting can incorporate space and the real, physical elements of life. Born into an Italian family in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, Fontana began his artistic career as a sculptor, experimenting with ‘abstract’ sculptures during the 1930s, becoming one of the key figures of the non-figurative avant-garde in Europe as he split his time between Italy and Argentina. During the 1940s, Fontana founded the Academia Altamira in Argentina, which led to the creation of the Manifiesto Blanco in 1946. Following the war in 1947, Fontana returned to Italy permanently and subsequently formed Spatialism, a movement that focuses on the physical and spatial qualities of sculpture and painting with a particular interest in the way light, space and movement can create art. Fontana also punctured the canvas with buchi (holes), and cut slashes into his monochrome-painted canvases, which led him to create the Concetti spaziali, Attesa or Attese (Spatial Concepts, Wait or Waits). Fontana was recognized for his work at the Venice Biennale in 1966, where he won the Grand Prize for painting. His work has been included in a number of noteworthy solo shows, including at: the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (2019-20); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2014); Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2008); The State Museum, Saint Petersburg (2006); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2006); Hayward Gallery, London (1999-2000); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (1996-1997); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1987); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1977); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1967); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1966).
While some of Fontana’s Concetti Spaziali assumed a variety of forms, this work consists of a square monochrome canvas in a vibrant orange hue that features the artist’s signature slashes. First conceived in 1958, Fontana’s initial cuts were small, either curved or diagonal penetrations of canvases. Over time, the artist developed a more controlled method of making his mark. Generally, after applying paint, Fontana would transport the wet canvas to his easel and use a Stanley knife to create his calculated slit. As soon as the paint dried, he would manually regulate the size of the opening with his own hands until satisfied. This process honored Fontana’s artistic foundation in sculpture while signaling his entrance into uncharted creative territory. While Fontana’s first cuts maintained evidence of his hand’s participation in the process, his later slashes, as in Concetto spaziale, Attese, appear almost mechanical, devoid of any traces of the artist’s subjectivity, gesture or expression. Fontana attributes value to the void, which can only be defined by the presence of the curling canvas that surrounds it. Fontana added several inscriptions to the back of his Concetti spaziali, including, in this case, attese—plural because of the multiple slashes that comprise the piece—which one may translate as “expectations” or “anticipations.” His decision to include this inscription indicates how important he considered the process of creating the work, especially waiting for the perfect moment to make his taglio (cut). (Magazzino Italian Art Foundation)