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Lot Essay
'Those 'spatial concepts' that are in a way synthetically figurative and narrative, which Fontana familiarly called 'little theatres', and which date from between 1964 and
1966, reflect the imaginative polarity expressed in a new clarity of design. They were exhibited for the first time in his one-man show at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, in October-November 1965, and represent a hypothesis of spatial figuration, where the monochrome sky spatially perforated with constellations of holes in different conformations is distanced by the frame which has various protruding shapes.'
(L. Fontana quoted in Caffeclub, L. Grassi, Milan 1968, p. 15).
A game of shadows and light plays out across the dual surfaces of Concetto spaziale, Teatrino. Executed in 1965, this is one of Lucio Fontana's 'Little Theatres', a series of works that he created between 1964 and 1966 which comprised a shaped, lacquered frame, reminiscent of the opening of a stage, with a punctured canvas behind. Fontana, who had himself had some experience working in set design, has created this little theatre in which the actors are the changes of light that come about with the passing of various elements in the world before it, be it viewers or clouds, changes that are reflected in the gleaming gloss of the lacquer.
Of all his Concetti spaziali, or 'Spatial Concepts', the Teatrini are among the most figurative. This is clear in Concetto spaziale, Teatrino in the form of the silhouettes in the foreground, which resemble stylised trees. With their edges pointed and indented, like the sides of a holly leaf, these are dynamic, thrusting forms that explode like dark bursts into the space within the frame. Behind them is the perforated black canvas, like a night sky decorated with a string of star-like punctures that arc elegantly across the surface. This is a nocturnal spatial dream-scape. Looking past the 'earthly' realm of the trees, we are observing space, be it in the form of a star-strewn sky or in the form of the holes that represent those stars.
Fontana said that his 'little theatres' were 'realist Spatialism' (Fontana, quoted in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Vol. I, Milan, 2006, p. 79). While the earliest of his Teatrini often featured formal, even geometric, compositions, within a short time this 'realism' crept into the works in the form of the evocative, often organic shaping of the lacquered frame: Fontana's reference to these works as 'realist' reflected his own appreciation of their rare figurative content. However, in this context, it is important to remember that Fontana considered himself beyond the world of 'image makers'. Already four years before Concetto spaziale, Teatrino was created, he had written to Enrico Crispolti, the author of numerous authoritative monographs on the artist, beginning by rhapsodising about trees and then conveying his excitement about Yuri Gagarin's voyage into Space earlier that year, relating the cosmonaut's leap into the beyond to his own artistic voyage:
'The copper beech here is wonderful! It looks like a burst of flame in the green, I am happy that with this "little trip" in space the break between us and the non-figurative "image-makers", half figurative and the other half dependent on the buyer, etc. etc. is now also physical, them on the ground and us in space,ca va? Are you with us? (Fontana, quoted in ibid., p. 105).
The promise that had been contained in Fontana's original buchi, his holes in the canvas, had finally been fulfilled by man. And this was a process that would continue. Indeed, it was in 1965, the year that Concetto spaziale, Teatrino was made, that Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space, carrying out twelve minutes of Extra-Vehicular Activity, floating, linked only by a tether, miles above our planet. Fontana was clearly fascinated by this development, and indeed some of his Teatrini involve shapes that recall the photographs of Leonov hanging by his cord above Earth which had been so widely publicised. Even in Concetto spaziale, Teatrino, there is a sense that the diagonal, dynamic forms at the bottom are escaping the bounds of their own matter and launching themselves upward into the void, spumes of glistening matter reminiscent of nebulae in their own right, adding to the rich cosmic drama within this Spatial little theatre.
1966, reflect the imaginative polarity expressed in a new clarity of design. They were exhibited for the first time in his one-man show at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, in October-November 1965, and represent a hypothesis of spatial figuration, where the monochrome sky spatially perforated with constellations of holes in different conformations is distanced by the frame which has various protruding shapes.'
(L. Fontana quoted in Caffeclub, L. Grassi, Milan 1968, p. 15).
A game of shadows and light plays out across the dual surfaces of Concetto spaziale, Teatrino. Executed in 1965, this is one of Lucio Fontana's 'Little Theatres', a series of works that he created between 1964 and 1966 which comprised a shaped, lacquered frame, reminiscent of the opening of a stage, with a punctured canvas behind. Fontana, who had himself had some experience working in set design, has created this little theatre in which the actors are the changes of light that come about with the passing of various elements in the world before it, be it viewers or clouds, changes that are reflected in the gleaming gloss of the lacquer.
Of all his Concetti spaziali, or 'Spatial Concepts', the Teatrini are among the most figurative. This is clear in Concetto spaziale, Teatrino in the form of the silhouettes in the foreground, which resemble stylised trees. With their edges pointed and indented, like the sides of a holly leaf, these are dynamic, thrusting forms that explode like dark bursts into the space within the frame. Behind them is the perforated black canvas, like a night sky decorated with a string of star-like punctures that arc elegantly across the surface. This is a nocturnal spatial dream-scape. Looking past the 'earthly' realm of the trees, we are observing space, be it in the form of a star-strewn sky or in the form of the holes that represent those stars.
Fontana said that his 'little theatres' were 'realist Spatialism' (Fontana, quoted in E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Vol. I, Milan, 2006, p. 79). While the earliest of his Teatrini often featured formal, even geometric, compositions, within a short time this 'realism' crept into the works in the form of the evocative, often organic shaping of the lacquered frame: Fontana's reference to these works as 'realist' reflected his own appreciation of their rare figurative content. However, in this context, it is important to remember that Fontana considered himself beyond the world of 'image makers'. Already four years before Concetto spaziale, Teatrino was created, he had written to Enrico Crispolti, the author of numerous authoritative monographs on the artist, beginning by rhapsodising about trees and then conveying his excitement about Yuri Gagarin's voyage into Space earlier that year, relating the cosmonaut's leap into the beyond to his own artistic voyage:
'The copper beech here is wonderful! It looks like a burst of flame in the green, I am happy that with this "little trip" in space the break between us and the non-figurative "image-makers", half figurative and the other half dependent on the buyer, etc. etc. is now also physical, them on the ground and us in space,
The promise that had been contained in Fontana's original buchi, his holes in the canvas, had finally been fulfilled by man. And this was a process that would continue. Indeed, it was in 1965, the year that Concetto spaziale, Teatrino was made, that Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space, carrying out twelve minutes of Extra-Vehicular Activity, floating, linked only by a tether, miles above our planet. Fontana was clearly fascinated by this development, and indeed some of his Teatrini involve shapes that recall the photographs of Leonov hanging by his cord above Earth which had been so widely publicised. Even in Concetto spaziale, Teatrino, there is a sense that the diagonal, dynamic forms at the bottom are escaping the bounds of their own matter and launching themselves upward into the void, spumes of glistening matter reminiscent of nebulae in their own right, adding to the rich cosmic drama within this Spatial little theatre.