Lot Essay
All Fontana's works from the late Forties onwards relate to his search for a third dimension - for a concrete rendering of space through painting. Fontana sought not to create illusion of space but to introduce it as palpable reality in his work.
"Concetto Spaziale", dated 1954, forms part of Fontana's "Pietre" works in which he not only makes holes in his canvases, but also incorporates "stones", that is, fragments of Milano glass, into the composition. This method does indeed introduce a new dimension to his art: the negative perforations are now off-set by the positive accumulation of material upon the pictorial surface. The fragments of glass and stone also create different effects of light and colour by their addition.
Having worked in sculpture up until the end of the Forties, Fontana applied the same methods to exploit the potential of flat canvases. In this example of his work, the holes are scattered irregularly, with the fragments of glass, stone and plaster grouped in an organic mass in the central part of the canvas. Raised up from the surface, reflecting the light and also casting shadows, the effect is quite mystical.
Katherine Hegeswich writes of the "Pietre" series:
"The perforations were an essential step in his efforts to overcome the illusionistic representation of space. But Fontana himself flattened his concept, strewing holes in a decorative arrangement across the canvas. The association of magnetic fields or moon landscapes is unavoidable. Sand and bits of glass stuck on distract our attention away from the perforations and the surface once more seems intact. The sculptor's joy in the haptic handling of the material conflicts with the desire to concentrate on the ideal." (Katherine Hegeswich, Lucio Fontana, Ex. Cat., Frankfurt 1987)
"Concetto Spaziale", dated 1954, forms part of Fontana's "Pietre" works in which he not only makes holes in his canvases, but also incorporates "stones", that is, fragments of Milano glass, into the composition. This method does indeed introduce a new dimension to his art: the negative perforations are now off-set by the positive accumulation of material upon the pictorial surface. The fragments of glass and stone also create different effects of light and colour by their addition.
Having worked in sculpture up until the end of the Forties, Fontana applied the same methods to exploit the potential of flat canvases. In this example of his work, the holes are scattered irregularly, with the fragments of glass, stone and plaster grouped in an organic mass in the central part of the canvas. Raised up from the surface, reflecting the light and also casting shadows, the effect is quite mystical.
Katherine Hegeswich writes of the "Pietre" series:
"The perforations were an essential step in his efforts to overcome the illusionistic representation of space. But Fontana himself flattened his concept, strewing holes in a decorative arrangement across the canvas. The association of magnetic fields or moon landscapes is unavoidable. Sand and bits of glass stuck on distract our attention away from the perforations and the surface once more seems intact. The sculptor's joy in the haptic handling of the material conflicts with the desire to concentrate on the ideal." (Katherine Hegeswich, Lucio Fontana, Ex. Cat., Frankfurt 1987)