Lucio Fontana Follow Concetto spaziale, Attese signed and titled 'L Fontana "Concetto spaziale ATTESE"' on the reverse; further inscribed 'La firma è scritta male / sono nervoso' on the reverse waterpaint on canvas 55.3 x 46.5 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/4 in.) Executed in 1968, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Fondazione Lucio Fontana and is registered under no. 68 T 68.
Provenance Egidio Lanza, Intra Centro Arte Internazionale, Milan Private Collection, Italy (acquired from the above in September 1972) Christie's, London, 15 October 2007, lot 218 Private Collection Cardi Gallery, Milan Private Collection, Miami (acquired from the above in 2014) Literature Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures, Sculptures et Environnements Spatiaux, vol. II, Brussels, 1974, no. 68 T 68, p. 200 (illustrated) Enrico Crispolti, Fontana, Catalogo generale, vol. II, Milan, 1986, no. 68 T 68, p. 690 (illustrated) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni , vol. II, Milan, 2006, no. 68 T 68, p. 882 (illustrated) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. II, Milan, 2015, no. 68 T 68, p. 882 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Enveloping the viewer in the artist’s conception of space, Concetto spaziale, Attese is a dramatic and powerful example of Lucio Fontana’s tagli - or cuts - a body of works Fontana made in Milan between 1958 and 1968. Exemplary of his concern with dimensionality, with two clean central incisions, the present work marks a decade since the artist’s first experimentations with tagli. From the final year of Fontana’s life and career, the present work was executed at the critical height of the esteemed artist’s oeuvre. The pair of vertical cuts in the present work affords the canvas an almost architectural absoluteness. The powerful, serene and pure blue of the ground colour echoes the same hues of the artist’s very first work from the tagli series. Here, the vibrant blue paired with the two clean slashes creates a serene and balanced composition which explores the realm and limitations of cosmic space. The initial impact of the intense and meditative blue, recalls Fontana’s friend and fellow artist Yves Klein’s trademarked and chosen tone. Since 1957, when Klein first exhibited his Blue Monochrome paintings at the Apollinaire Gallery in Milan, Fontana had admired the French artist and the infinite effects of the colour blue. Like Klein, Fontana utilised the uniformly painted canvas to enhance the viewer’s perception and consciousness of space. In Concetto spaziale, Attese purity prevails in the clean lines and deep blue of the composition. The concentrated tranquillity of the work echoes the pure and sublime environment created by the artist for his presentation at the 1966 Venice Biennale, an installation of white canvasses for which he won the grand prize. Fontana presented an entire room filled with his tagli paintings; this meditative space was designed to give ‘the spectator an impression of spatial calm, of cosmic rigour, of serenity in infinity’ (Lucio Fontana quoted in Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo Ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. I, Milan, 2006, p. 105). Underpinned by a revolutionary shift towards new media and fascination with the relationship between artworks and their environment, Fontana’s tagli examine the dimensionality of space. Despite his consistent and active violation of the canvas plane, the artist’s work is neither violent nor destructive but rather representative of an eloquent and visual argument for a radical expansion of the medium of painting. Through his slashes, an act of liberation, Fontana actively opens the canvas and reveals a new dimension. Manipulating matter, the artist forged new spaces for the visualization of his ideas. Elaborating on his motives and quest toward the eternal, his Manifesto Spaziale (spatialist manifesto) asserted: ‘We believe that art liberates matter, the meaning of eternity from the concern for mortality. We are not interested in whether a completed gesture lives for a moment or a millennium, since we are truly convinced that it will be eternal after it has been accomplished’ (Lucio Fontana Primo Manifesto spaziale , Milan, 1947). The tagli series, meditative and monochrome disrupted canvas p
Lucio Fontana Follow Concetto spaziale, Attese signed and titled 'L Fontana "Concetto spaziale ATTESE"' on the reverse; further inscribed 'La firma è scritta male / sono nervoso' on the reverse waterpaint on canvas 55.3 x 46.5 cm (21 3/4 x 18 1/4 in.) Executed in 1968, this work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Fondazione Lucio Fontana and is registered under no. 68 T 68.
Provenance Egidio Lanza, Intra Centro Arte Internazionale, Milan Private Collection, Italy (acquired from the above in September 1972) Christie's, London, 15 October 2007, lot 218 Private Collection Cardi Gallery, Milan Private Collection, Miami (acquired from the above in 2014) Literature Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures, Sculptures et Environnements Spatiaux, vol. II, Brussels, 1974, no. 68 T 68, p. 200 (illustrated) Enrico Crispolti, Fontana, Catalogo generale, vol. II, Milan, 1986, no. 68 T 68, p. 690 (illustrated) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni , vol. II, Milan, 2006, no. 68 T 68, p. 882 (illustrated) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. II, Milan, 2015, no. 68 T 68, p. 882 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Enveloping the viewer in the artist’s conception of space, Concetto spaziale, Attese is a dramatic and powerful example of Lucio Fontana’s tagli - or cuts - a body of works Fontana made in Milan between 1958 and 1968. Exemplary of his concern with dimensionality, with two clean central incisions, the present work marks a decade since the artist’s first experimentations with tagli. From the final year of Fontana’s life and career, the present work was executed at the critical height of the esteemed artist’s oeuvre. The pair of vertical cuts in the present work affords the canvas an almost architectural absoluteness. The powerful, serene and pure blue of the ground colour echoes the same hues of the artist’s very first work from the tagli series. Here, the vibrant blue paired with the two clean slashes creates a serene and balanced composition which explores the realm and limitations of cosmic space. The initial impact of the intense and meditative blue, recalls Fontana’s friend and fellow artist Yves Klein’s trademarked and chosen tone. Since 1957, when Klein first exhibited his Blue Monochrome paintings at the Apollinaire Gallery in Milan, Fontana had admired the French artist and the infinite effects of the colour blue. Like Klein, Fontana utilised the uniformly painted canvas to enhance the viewer’s perception and consciousness of space. In Concetto spaziale, Attese purity prevails in the clean lines and deep blue of the composition. The concentrated tranquillity of the work echoes the pure and sublime environment created by the artist for his presentation at the 1966 Venice Biennale, an installation of white canvasses for which he won the grand prize. Fontana presented an entire room filled with his tagli paintings; this meditative space was designed to give ‘the spectator an impression of spatial calm, of cosmic rigour, of serenity in infinity’ (Lucio Fontana quoted in Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo Ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. I, Milan, 2006, p. 105). Underpinned by a revolutionary shift towards new media and fascination with the relationship between artworks and their environment, Fontana’s tagli examine the dimensionality of space. Despite his consistent and active violation of the canvas plane, the artist’s work is neither violent nor destructive but rather representative of an eloquent and visual argument for a radical expansion of the medium of painting. Through his slashes, an act of liberation, Fontana actively opens the canvas and reveals a new dimension. Manipulating matter, the artist forged new spaces for the visualization of his ideas. Elaborating on his motives and quest toward the eternal, his Manifesto Spaziale (spatialist manifesto) asserted: ‘We believe that art liberates matter, the meaning of eternity from the concern for mortality. We are not interested in whether a completed gesture lives for a moment or a millennium, since we are truly convinced that it will be eternal after it has been accomplished’ (Lucio Fontana Primo Manifesto spaziale , Milan, 1947). The tagli series, meditative and monochrome disrupted canvas p
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