Lot Essay
Executed in 1951-52, Concetto spaziale dates from the very earliest period of Lucio Fontana's creation of Spatial works of art. He had already brought Spatialism into existence as a concept during the previous few years, but it was only in 1949 that he had had his celebrated Eureka moment, cutting through the surface of the picture-plane and creating the first Buchi. That had been the same year as his first innovative spatial environment, Ambiente spaziale a luce nera, and it was only in 1952 that he began to exhibit the cycle of Buchi which he had been creating over previous years.
Concetto spaziale continues the exploration of this new means of introducing Spatial concepts into art, here in the form of a sculpture made of terracotta, one of the materials with which Fontana had long been adept at manipulating. Indeed, he had often created figurative works even in the pre-War period that showed his virtuosity as a sculptor while also hinting at his future interest in the relationship between space and matter. His skill in this area is reflected both by the fact that he exhibited in 1951 in the Mostra delle Ceramiche Italo-Francese in Milan, and also met Pablo Picasso, one of the most famous artists to explore the potential of ceramics and terracotta, in Vallauris during the same period.
In Concetto spaziale, Fontana's interest in space, matter and gesture have evolved into a work in which the surface itself bears testimony to the range of movements and interactions that have resulted in the artist's traces being captured within the support. The punctures, which appear to have been made to each side of the sculpture, emphasise the three-dimensionality of the surface, an effect that is further articulated by the flashes of colour in the detailing. This constellation of marks allows space to permeate the tangible object like shards of the infinite. Here, Fontana has truly combined his origins as a sculptor with his desire to bring into existence an artform appropriate to the age of Space travel, the age of science and infinity. He is liberating art from the material, from the figurative, from the static, introducing a sense of movement and a hint of that crucial, poetic tension between that ephemeral movement and the ineradicable, eternal space that he has brought into being within the terracotta.
Concetto spaziale continues the exploration of this new means of introducing Spatial concepts into art, here in the form of a sculpture made of terracotta, one of the materials with which Fontana had long been adept at manipulating. Indeed, he had often created figurative works even in the pre-War period that showed his virtuosity as a sculptor while also hinting at his future interest in the relationship between space and matter. His skill in this area is reflected both by the fact that he exhibited in 1951 in the Mostra delle Ceramiche Italo-Francese in Milan, and also met Pablo Picasso, one of the most famous artists to explore the potential of ceramics and terracotta, in Vallauris during the same period.
In Concetto spaziale, Fontana's interest in space, matter and gesture have evolved into a work in which the surface itself bears testimony to the range of movements and interactions that have resulted in the artist's traces being captured within the support. The punctures, which appear to have been made to each side of the sculpture, emphasise the three-dimensionality of the surface, an effect that is further articulated by the flashes of colour in the detailing. This constellation of marks allows space to permeate the tangible object like shards of the infinite. Here, Fontana has truly combined his origins as a sculptor with his desire to bring into existence an artform appropriate to the age of Space travel, the age of science and infinity. He is liberating art from the material, from the figurative, from the static, introducing a sense of movement and a hint of that crucial, poetic tension between that ephemeral movement and the ineradicable, eternal space that he has brought into being within the terracotta.