Lot Essay
This monumental work epitomises Fontana's use of the "buchi" or punctured hole to free himself from what he called the "prison" of the flat surface. With this technique came the birth of a new concept of space, which challenged Western traditions of pictorial representation. The resulant art cannot be categorised, existing within a different realm to either painting or sculpture.
Although Fontana's pictures focus on the conceptual, as works of art they retain an essential aestheticism. The proportions of the "buchi" seem to relate to a divine, cosmic order. With their arrangement across the picture plane Fontana creats a rippling movement. Our eyes flow amongst the "buchi" in the way that the ear follows music.
The exceptional place which Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B5 holds within Fontana's oeuvre is pronounced through the work's massive proportions. In this aspect the piece relates to Fontana's Fine di Dio series and Venice paintings. The use of a luminous gold which covers the entirety of the picture plane again relates to the "Olii" series, and in this way Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B5 can be seen to pre-figure these important and rare works within the artist's career.
It is in the actual gesture of puncturing the "buchi" in Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B5 that Fontana infuses a notion of time into the picture plane. Fontana wrote in his Second Manifesto of 1948, "...it doesn't interest us if a gesture, once made, lives for an instant or for a thousand years, because we truly believe that having been made it is eternal".
In each "buchi" lies the concrete reality of the moment when the artist put his hand to the canvas. In this way each hole may be seen to encapsulate time itself. Similarly, Fontana here achieves a concrete rendering of space. It is not a pictorial illusionistic representation of depth which the artist seeks, but the actual creation of space itself - the work existing as a testament to this. With the punctuations in the canvas, the gaze becomes emersed in space, searching through the hidden black tunnel behind each hole.
The dark depth which the holes create, however, are in stark contrast with the gold, iridescent surface of the picture. At the same that eye is drawn into the space entered through the "buchi", the spectator is aware of the space directly in front of the work, bathed in the light reflected off the glittering canvas. Another contrast meanwhile exists between the rough texture which the "buchi" produce, and the smooth plane of the surface from which they emanate.
These apparent contradictions in the formal qualities of the work reinforce its meditative effect. Although Fontana destroys the sacred unity of the surface of the canvas through its laceration, thanks to the aesthetic harmony of the lines of "buchi", the magical gold of the work's surface and the impressive physical dimensions of the canvas, an almost religious sanctity is created in its place. The work is raised to a symbolic status: it is contemplated in an aura of universal harmony and serene glory. As Bernard Blistene states, "Fontana's work finds its truth in the successive renunciations that take him back to the space within". It may be said of Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B 5 that the iconoclasm achieved through the violent act of the laceration of the picture plane itself serves to create a modern-day icon.
It was after Fontana attended Klein's exhibition of blue monochromes at the Galleria Apollinaire in 1957 that the two artists became friends, Fontana seeing in Klein an artist searching for ends similar to his own. Around this time both artists started producing their gold monochromed panels, each however achieving a highly individual effect through them.
Although Fontana's pictures focus on the conceptual, as works of art they retain an essential aestheticism. The proportions of the "buchi" seem to relate to a divine, cosmic order. With their arrangement across the picture plane Fontana creats a rippling movement. Our eyes flow amongst the "buchi" in the way that the ear follows music.
The exceptional place which Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B5 holds within Fontana's oeuvre is pronounced through the work's massive proportions. In this aspect the piece relates to Fontana's Fine di Dio series and Venice paintings. The use of a luminous gold which covers the entirety of the picture plane again relates to the "Olii" series, and in this way Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B5 can be seen to pre-figure these important and rare works within the artist's career.
It is in the actual gesture of puncturing the "buchi" in Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B5 that Fontana infuses a notion of time into the picture plane. Fontana wrote in his Second Manifesto of 1948, "...it doesn't interest us if a gesture, once made, lives for an instant or for a thousand years, because we truly believe that having been made it is eternal".
In each "buchi" lies the concrete reality of the moment when the artist put his hand to the canvas. In this way each hole may be seen to encapsulate time itself. Similarly, Fontana here achieves a concrete rendering of space. It is not a pictorial illusionistic representation of depth which the artist seeks, but the actual creation of space itself - the work existing as a testament to this. With the punctuations in the canvas, the gaze becomes emersed in space, searching through the hidden black tunnel behind each hole.
The dark depth which the holes create, however, are in stark contrast with the gold, iridescent surface of the picture. At the same that eye is drawn into the space entered through the "buchi", the spectator is aware of the space directly in front of the work, bathed in the light reflected off the glittering canvas. Another contrast meanwhile exists between the rough texture which the "buchi" produce, and the smooth plane of the surface from which they emanate.
These apparent contradictions in the formal qualities of the work reinforce its meditative effect. Although Fontana destroys the sacred unity of the surface of the canvas through its laceration, thanks to the aesthetic harmony of the lines of "buchi", the magical gold of the work's surface and the impressive physical dimensions of the canvas, an almost religious sanctity is created in its place. The work is raised to a symbolic status: it is contemplated in an aura of universal harmony and serene glory. As Bernard Blistene states, "Fontana's work finds its truth in the successive renunciations that take him back to the space within". It may be said of Concetto Spaziale 59/60 B 5 that the iconoclasm achieved through the violent act of the laceration of the picture plane itself serves to create a modern-day icon.
It was after Fontana attended Klein's exhibition of blue monochromes at the Galleria Apollinaire in 1957 that the two artists became friends, Fontana seeing in Klein an artist searching for ends similar to his own. Around this time both artists started producing their gold monochromed panels, each however achieving a highly individual effect through them.