Concetto Spaziale (Teatrini)

Executed in 1968, the year that Lucio Fontana died, Concetto spaziale, Teatrini reveals a dynamic interplay between form and space that underlines the artist’s pioneering exploration of dimensionality in art. Comprised of layered planes of red, black and white, the construction of these multiples is deeply reminiscent of theatre stages, which is reflected by the work’s title Teatrini (‘Little Theatres’). Indeed, the present work relates to Fontana’s earlier Teatrino works (completed between 1964-1966) which allowed him to continue his exploration of his Spatialist theories in a new manner that he defined as ‘realistic Spatialism’.

With abstraction dominating much of Fontana’s practice for the better part of two decades, the artist’s Teatrini reveal a reintroduction of figuration into his practice. In the present work, one can observe the carved silhouettes of various stylised organic forms, reminiscent of undulating hills and trees. This shift in the artist’s practice reveals a direct response to the contemporary art developments taking place at this time as Fontana sought to reflect the idealised aesthetic of American Pop Art in the 1960s. Referencing his Teatrino works, Fontana considers how these works reflect a kind of ‘realistic Spatialism…Also a little bit in the fashion of these Pop Art things…but still in my way. They were forms that Man imagines in space’ (Fontana, quoted in P. Gottschaller, Lucio Fontana: The Artist’s Materials, Los Angeles, 2012, p. 114).

The artist’s incorporation of reliefs and perforations into this composition conjure indeterminate spaces which highlight Fontana’s fascination with the activation of space within his multidisciplinary practice. As the slick, amorphous forms outlined in the foreground cast shadows onto their smooth, monochromatic backgrounds, Fontana reveals his intense fascination with harnessing light. Similarly, the disruptive punctures featured throughout the surfaces of the present work were also a crucial component to his exploration of the activation of space within this work and also his wider practice. By puncturing the cardboard structures, the artist creates a void into a new dimension, interpolating the viewer in a new way by allowing his audience to experience the composition through a fourth dimension. These buchi (‘holes’) had by this time become a key part of Fontana’s pictorial vocabulary which, alongside the meticulously layered compositions of each of the six works, create a dimensionality that enhances a sense of spatial depth.

Held in Baron von Buch's collection for nearly twenty years, this highly impactful series is emblematic of Fontana’s pioneering approach to the design of spatial environments and his unique dialogue with materials.