Lucio Fontana
b. 1899, Rosario de Santa Fé, Argentina
d. 1968, Comabbio, Italy
Concetto spaziale, Attese (Spatial Concept, Waiting)
1967
Water-based paint on canvas
80 x 65 cm (31 1/2 x 25 5/8 in.)
Provenance
Private collection, Milan;
Camuffo collection, Verona;
Orsatti e Antonini collection, Verona;
Rivolta collection, Milan;
Galleria Bergamini, Milan.
Literature
Enrico Crispolti,Lucio Fontana. Catalogue Raisonné, Brussels 1974, vol. II p.194-195;
Enrico Crispolti,Lucio Fontana. Catalogo generale, Milan 1986, vol. II, p. 672;
Enrico Crispolti,Lucio Fontana. Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Milan 2006, vol. II, p. 866 no 67T102.
Description
Executed in 1967, the present work came into being at the very height of Fontana’s career, a year after he was awarded the first prize for painting at the XXXII Venice Biennale, and almost ten years after the execution of his first slashed canvases. The technical perfection that he had achieved at this late stage of his career enabled him to successfully create this beautifully balanced and rhythmical composition.
In the same year Fontana was concurrently developing another innovation, the Ellissi which were sculptural iterations of his holes. In these works which were made either of lacquered wood or machine worked metal, Fontana was able to create glossy three-dimensional counterparts to works such as his Tagli. The crisp sheen of those works appears to be reflected in the incredible evenness of Concetto Spaziale. Attese.
The slashes are the culmination of Fontana’s investigation of time and space, an investigation that as Erika Billeter (in Lucio Fontana 1899 – 1968: A retrospective, catalogue of the exhibition, New York 1977, p. 13) pointed out “challenges the history of painting. With one bold stroke he pierces the canvas and tears it to shreds. Through this action he declares before the entire world that the canvas is no longer a pictorial vehicle and asserts that easel painting, a constant in art heretofore, is called into question. Implied in this gesture is both the transformation of a five – hundred year evolution in Western painting and a new beginning, for destruction carries innovation in its wake”.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.
In the same year Fontana was concurrently developing another innovation, the Ellissi which were sculptural iterations of his holes. In these works which were made either of lacquered wood or machine worked metal, Fontana was able to create glossy three-dimensional counterparts to works such as his Tagli. The crisp sheen of those works appears to be reflected in the incredible evenness of Concetto Spaziale. Attese.
The slashes are the culmination of Fontana’s investigation of time and space, an investigation that as Erika Billeter (in Lucio Fontana 1899 – 1968: A retrospective, catalogue of the exhibition, New York 1977, p. 13) pointed out “challenges the history of painting. With one bold stroke he pierces the canvas and tears it to shreds. Through this action he declares before the entire world that the canvas is no longer a pictorial vehicle and asserts that easel painting, a constant in art heretofore, is called into question. Implied in this gesture is both the transformation of a five – hundred year evolution in Western painting and a new beginning, for destruction carries innovation in its wake”.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.
