LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968)

Concetto spaziale, Natura

Details
LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968)
Concetto spaziale, Natura
terracotta
15¾ x 21.5/8 x 18.1/8in. (40 x 55 x 46cm.)
Executed in 1959-1960

This work is registered in the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan, under no. 2688/11.
Provenance
Galleria Pater, Milan.
Private Collection, Milan.
Private Collection, Hamburg.
Galleria Karsten Greve, Milan.
Anon. sale, Sotheby’s London, 22 October 2001, lot 24.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogue Raisonné, Brussels 1974, vol. II, no. 59-60 N 17 (illustrated, p. 106).
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo Generale, Milan 1986, vol. I, no. 59-60 N 17, p. 354 (illustrated, p. 355).
A. Sciacca, “Quel sacco è un bel quadro”, in L’Eco di Bergamo, Bergamo, 1 June 1996 (illustrated, unpaged).
Fontana, exh. cat., Milan, 1999, no. 203 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated, p. 195).
G. Ieranò, “Un taglio al passato”, in Carnet, n. 4, Milan, April 1999 (bronze version illustrated in colour, p. 33).
V. Scheiwiller, Scultura, lingua morta?, Milan 1999 (illustrated, pp. 50-51).
G. Curto, “La sua arte è uno sfregio”, in Specchio, n. 168, Turin, 10 April 1999 (bronze version illustrated in colour, p. 97).
F. Gullar, “A matéria de Lucio Fontana”, in Bravo, November 2000 (bronze version illustrated in colour, p. 46).
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, vol. I, Milan 2006, no. 59-60 N 17 (illustrated, p. 534).

Exhibited
Paris, Musée Rodin, Sculpture Italienne Contemporaine, d’Arturo Martini à nos jours, 1960, no. 26, no. 11.
Tokyo, Metropolitan Art Gallery, The VI Tokyo Biennal, 1961, no. 5 (illustrated, unpaged).
Tokyo, Takashimaya Department Store, Italian Contemporary Sculpture, 1961, no. 38 (illustrated, unpaged).
Paris, Galleria Karsten Greve, Lucio Fontana, Peintures et Sculptures, 1989-1990 (terracotta and bronze versions exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 80-83).
Salzburg, Salzburger Kunstverein, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Utopia: Arte italiana 1950-1993, 1993 (bronze version exhibited).
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968, 1994-1995, no. 55 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated in colour, unpaged). This exhibition later travelled to Milan, Triennale di Milano and Wolfsburg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
Prato, Museo Pecci, Burri e Fontana 1949-1968, 1996, no. 29 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 168).
Essen, Museum Folkwang, Die Maler und ihre Skulpturen, Von Edgar Degas bis Gerhard Richter, 1997-1998.
Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Lucio Fontana, 1998, no. 4/S/6 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 305).
Milan, PAC - Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Centenario di Lucio Fontana. Cinque mostre a Milano, 1999, no. I (bronze version exhibited, illustrated, p. 125).
Milan, Galleria Fonte d’Abisso, Scultura in Europa negli anni '50, 1999 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 57).
Rodengo Saiano, Fondazione Ambrosetti Arte Contemporanea, Lucio Fontana. L’Altro spazio, 1999 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated, p. 30).
Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Lucio Fontana. A òtica do invisível, 2001-2002 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 130).
Burgdorf, Museum Franz Gertsch, Lucio Fontana, 2004, no. 94 (bronze version exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 140).

Special Notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Alessandro Diotallevi
Alessandro Diotallevi

Lot Essay

Finding adjectives to describe this terracotta with cut by Fontana, is not easy for me at all: I am still too immersed in it, despite all the years that have passed gazing at it and studying it, down to the smallest detail. Sublime, powerful, impressive: I wanted it placed on a low glass table. In some ways to protect it, but above all so that I could best enjoy it, sitting on a sofa, rather than kneeling, so close as to be able to perceive every small movement in the material. The colour is very beautiful; the cut that crosses it in depth from one side to the other is perfect, inferred with energy and precision, so as to leave in relief the "crest" of the material cut. It is a deep, silent wound, but one that leaves around it an aura of mystery, of nobility, of absolute beauty. In "her", I have always followed, on the surface, the play of Fontana's hands that gave form to the terracotta, modelling it with great elegance. Merely looking at it creates excitement: so intact, so "unique", so powerfully expressive.
I still remember the day it should have arrived at our house: I was like a man pacing up and down outside the delivery room; I walked nervously, waiting for the bell at the gate to ring, continuously checking the video entry-phone to see if the van had arrived. Everyone asked who I could possibly be waiting for in such an anxious way.
Opening the crate, perfect, like the segments of an orange, and then, at last, "her": too beautiful even to breathe, without uttering a word, other than those necessary to ensuring that the carriers took the greatest care in handling her and placing her carefully on a small felt base to protect the underside. Because when I am waiting for a work, I already know where and how I want it placed. I have already dreamed of it in my mind and positioned it.
By now, even if selfishly I am speaking in the singular, "she" has become an important presence for both of us. In any home, she will require only love and passion, respect for the universe that she so admirably represents.

More from Eyes Wide Open: An Italian Vision

View All
View All