6. 6AR LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968) Concetto spaziale 1957 signed, titled and dated 57 on reverse pastel on canvas signed, titled and dated 57 on the reverse pastel on canvas 60 x 49.8 cm. 23 5/8 x 19 5/8 in. Provenance Private collection, Paris Sale : Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art, 14 February 2014, lot 250 Private collection, Europe (acquired at this sale) Acquired from this collection by the current owner Bibliography Garibaldo Marussi, Quel sorprendente Fontana, Le Arti magazine, October 1968, p. 42, no. 10, illustrated in black and white (reproduced upside down) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: catalogue raisonné of paintings, sculptures and spatial environments, vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 58, no. 57 G 46, illustrated in black and white (reproduced upside down) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: catalogo generale. Volume primo, Milan 1986, p. 202, n°57 G 46, illustrated in black and white (reproduced upside down) Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. I, Milan 2006, p. 357, no. 57 G 46, illustrated in black and white (reproduced upside down) There is a singular aura that emanates from Fontana's works, one that carries with it an almost sacred knowledge. By making the void the absolute centre of his art, the artist, with acuity and subtlety, raises the question of the creative gesture, of the maieutics of a work, of material research, just as he reveals an infinite spatiality to our physical eyes. Ontological and polymorphic, his canvases are no longer a pictorial support, but participate in the creation of a pictorial construction of a three-dimensional nature. Space is born of light. Concetto Spaziale, produced in 1957, was the high point of the Gessi period, which lasted from 1954 to 1958. Chalk, gypsum and pastel tint these creations with their chalky texture and beautifully diffuse chromaticity. Here, in the conquered light of a magma chamber, a vibrant, heavy red emerges from a black expanse, shaking the canvas with its telluric beauty. The impetuosity with which Fontana's very sure gesture split the canvas from its buchi denotes the irrevocability of which he made his profession of faith. His art, like a terra incognita, is free of compromise. The act becomes a rite. Fascinated by Dante and the stars, the young Fontana was soon drawn to Futurism, the first avant-garde movement of the century, and to the Valori Plastici, the guarantors of orthodoxy. Nourished by quantum physics and amazed by the pioneering exploration of space, the painter turned philosopher. A true figurehead of the European avant-garde, Fontana belonged to those men who turned their renunciation into a vision. The famous Manifesto Blanco (co-written in 1946 in Buenos Aires with Beniamino Joppolo, among others) sent shockwaves through the art world. Two years later, Fontana put his sacramental seal on the foundations of his spatialist poetics: "We want the painting to leave its frame and the sculpture to leave its glass bell". The adventure of an artist or the destiny of a movement... With an iconoclastic gesture, the artist cuts, punctures and pierces the canvas, turning it from a material into matter. Under his authority, the image becomes a window on space and time, whose unity implodes its materiality. As experience replaced mimesis, the shadows, now tangible, entered the cave. In January 1957, Fontana visited Guido Le Noci at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, accompanied by Beniamino Joppolo, to attend the Proposte monocrome, epoca blu exhibition by a certain Yves Klein, from whom he bought one of his first blue monochromes. The immaterial dimension of his art would inspire so many of his followers. The ZERO group, the NUL group, performance artists, the Arte Povera movement, etc. all saw him as a spiritual father. The art of the twentieth century would be inconceivable without him. The exceptional retrospective devoted to him by the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2019, Lucio Fontana: On the Threshold, is highly illuminating in this respect. Fertile, visionary and heterodox, Fontana's work summons the ephemeral to reach the infinite, which runs through each of his lacerations, like so many vertigoes. His art is seen as a metaphysics with eschatological undertones: "Art will remain eternal as gesture, but will die as matter". Creation, said another great Italian artist, is cosa mentale. There is a singular aura that emanates from Fontana's works, they are among those that bear within a near sacred knowledge. By choosing emptiness as the epicentre of his art, the artist, with acuity and subtlety, investigates the creative gesture, the maieutic approach to an artwork, and research into Matterism, just as he reveals infinite spatiality to our carnal eyes. Ontological and polymorphic, his canvases are no longer a pictorial ground, but contribute to the creation of a pictorial construction of three-dimensional nature. Thus light spawns space. Concetto Spaziale, was produced in 1957 at the apex of the Gessi period, which ran from 1954 to 1958. Chalk, gypsum and pastel tint these creations with their chalky texture and delicately diffuse chromaticity. Here, in the subdued light of a magma chamber, a vibrant, thick red emerges from a black expanse, unnerving the canvas with its telluric beauty. The impetuosity with which Fontana's firm hand splits the canvas with Buchi (punctures) evidences the irrevocability which has become his profession of faith. His art, like a terra incognita, is free of compromise. The act becomes ritual. Fascinated by Dante and the stars, the young Fontana was soon drawn to Futurism, the first avant-garde movement of the century, and to the Valori Plastici, the guarantors of orthodoxy. Nourished by quantum physics and amazed by the pioneering exploration of space, the painter as a philosopher is introspective. A true figurehead of the European avant-garde, Fontana belonged to this group of men who turned their renunciation into a vision. His famous Manifesto Blanco (co-written in 1946 in Buenos Aires with Beniamino Joppolo, among others) sent shockwaves through the art world. Two years later, Fontana stamped his sacramental seal on the foundations of his Spatialist poetics: "We want the painting to leave its frame and the sculpture to leave its glass bell". The adventure of one artist or the destiny of a movement... With an iconoclastic gesture, the artist cuts, perforates and pierces the canvas, transforming a piece of material into matter. Under his authority, the image becomes a window onto space and time thus their unity implodes the material world. As experience replaces mimesis, the shadows, now tangible, enter the cave. In January 1957, Fontana visited Guido Le Noci at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, accompanied by Beniamino Joppolo, to attend the exhibition Proposte monocrome, epoca blu, by a certain Yves Klein, from whom he bought one of his first blue monochromes. The immaterial dimension of his art was so inspiring it drew many followers. The ZERO group, the NUL group, performance artists, the Arte Povera movement, etc. all saw him as a spiritual father. Indeed he cannot be left unmentioned when discussing twentieth century art. The exceptional retrospective devoted to him by the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2019, Lucio Fontana: On the Threshold, is quite enlightening in this respect. Fecund, visionary and heterodox, Fontana's work summons the ephemeral to attain the infinite; it travels each of his lacerations leaving us giddy on the edge. His art can be seen as metaphysics with eschatological undertones: "Art will remain eternal as gesture, but will die as matter". Creation, said another great Italian artist, is cosa mentale.