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Lot Essay
‘The teatrini were a type 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’
LUCIO FONTANA
‘The shaped lacquer frames and the clean grounds of the sky traversed by ordered constellations of holes indicate a new desire to create an objectified configuration of a kind of spatial “spectacle”, which Fontana presents with an almost classical imaginative composure’
ENRICO CRISPOLTI
Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Teatrino is one of an experimental and playfully exuberant series known as the teatrini or ‘little theatres’ that the artist created between 1964 and 1966. Executed in 1965, alongside the olii, buchi, tagli and the artist’s renowned series, La fine di Dio, Concetto spaziale, Teatrino and the teatrini are another visual incarnation of Fontana’s radical artistic movement, Spatialism, which he had been exploring since the late 1940s. Consisting of a black lacquered wooden frame, which surrounds a deep turquoise monochrome canvas that is punctured with geometric lines of holes, this work is immediately reminiscent of a theatrical stage flanked by a backdrop; a playful, imaginary object that reintroduces figurative elements into the visionary Italian’s work. At once a painting and a sculpture, this work is a hybrid object; a fusion of abstraction and figuration that not only demonstrates Fontana’s ceaseless creativity but reflects the artist’s interest and awareness of concurrent contemporary developments, in particular Pop Art.
Keen to maintain his position at the forefront of post-war contemporary art, Fontana particularly acknowledged the importance of Pop Art among the various American art movements of this time. In 1964, the year before he executed Concetto spaziale, Teatrino, Fontana had visited the 32nd Venice Biennale, where American Pop Art had made a sensational and scandalous arrival on the European art scene. The United States pavilion exhibited works by Robert Rauschenberg, who went on to win the International Grand Prize, Jasper Johns and Claes Oldenburg, amongst others. Confronted with the slick, bold colours, commercial imagery and industrial aesthetic of Pop Art, Fontana set about creating his own answer to this movement: the teatrini. As Fontana explained, the teatrini were a type of ‘realistic Spatialism’. He continued, ‘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).
Interested by the prevalence of the bold and stylised figuration that characterised Pop Art, Fontana turned away from the abstraction that he had been predominantly practicing up until this point and introduced a more figurative element to his work. In Concetto spaziale, Teatrino, the amorphous, arabesque forms that protrude from the square frame have a wealth of figurative associations and organic allusions; a pyramidal form appears to grow out of the bottom of the frame, casting rippling shadows across the canvas behind. In contrast to the boundless, immeasurable and limitless conception of space that Fontana sought to convey in his previous spatial works, in the present work, space is enclosed, carefully delineated and confined. The stage-like configuration of Concetto spaziale, Teatrino invites the viewer to contemplate the physical space projected directly in front of them, marked by the sharp silhouettes of the forms of the surrounding frame. Space becomes the spectacle, and the viewer the audience. As Enrico Crispolti has described, ‘The shaped lacquer frames and the clean grounds of the sky traversed by ordered constellations of holes indicate a new desire to create an objectified configuration of a kind of spatial “spectacle”, which Fontana presents with an almost classical imaginative composure’ (E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Milan, 2006, p. 79). Yet, the solitary passages of holes that border the monochrome canvas provide a hint of the darker, infinite space that lies beyond the framed small-scale environment created by this work. Like stars in the sky, these punctuations create deep pools of enigmatic darkness that act as a portal to another dimension, full of mystery and magic.
LUCIO FONTANA
‘The shaped lacquer frames and the clean grounds of the sky traversed by ordered constellations of holes indicate a new desire to create an objectified configuration of a kind of spatial “spectacle”, which Fontana presents with an almost classical imaginative composure’
ENRICO CRISPOLTI
Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Teatrino is one of an experimental and playfully exuberant series known as the teatrini or ‘little theatres’ that the artist created between 1964 and 1966. Executed in 1965, alongside the olii, buchi, tagli and the artist’s renowned series, La fine di Dio, Concetto spaziale, Teatrino and the teatrini are another visual incarnation of Fontana’s radical artistic movement, Spatialism, which he had been exploring since the late 1940s. Consisting of a black lacquered wooden frame, which surrounds a deep turquoise monochrome canvas that is punctured with geometric lines of holes, this work is immediately reminiscent of a theatrical stage flanked by a backdrop; a playful, imaginary object that reintroduces figurative elements into the visionary Italian’s work. At once a painting and a sculpture, this work is a hybrid object; a fusion of abstraction and figuration that not only demonstrates Fontana’s ceaseless creativity but reflects the artist’s interest and awareness of concurrent contemporary developments, in particular Pop Art.
Keen to maintain his position at the forefront of post-war contemporary art, Fontana particularly acknowledged the importance of Pop Art among the various American art movements of this time. In 1964, the year before he executed Concetto spaziale, Teatrino, Fontana had visited the 32nd Venice Biennale, where American Pop Art had made a sensational and scandalous arrival on the European art scene. The United States pavilion exhibited works by Robert Rauschenberg, who went on to win the International Grand Prize, Jasper Johns and Claes Oldenburg, amongst others. Confronted with the slick, bold colours, commercial imagery and industrial aesthetic of Pop Art, Fontana set about creating his own answer to this movement: the teatrini. As Fontana explained, the teatrini were a type of ‘realistic Spatialism’. He continued, ‘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).
Interested by the prevalence of the bold and stylised figuration that characterised Pop Art, Fontana turned away from the abstraction that he had been predominantly practicing up until this point and introduced a more figurative element to his work. In Concetto spaziale, Teatrino, the amorphous, arabesque forms that protrude from the square frame have a wealth of figurative associations and organic allusions; a pyramidal form appears to grow out of the bottom of the frame, casting rippling shadows across the canvas behind. In contrast to the boundless, immeasurable and limitless conception of space that Fontana sought to convey in his previous spatial works, in the present work, space is enclosed, carefully delineated and confined. The stage-like configuration of Concetto spaziale, Teatrino invites the viewer to contemplate the physical space projected directly in front of them, marked by the sharp silhouettes of the forms of the surrounding frame. Space becomes the spectacle, and the viewer the audience. As Enrico Crispolti has described, ‘The shaped lacquer frames and the clean grounds of the sky traversed by ordered constellations of holes indicate a new desire to create an objectified configuration of a kind of spatial “spectacle”, which Fontana presents with an almost classical imaginative composure’ (E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Milan, 2006, p. 79). Yet, the solitary passages of holes that border the monochrome canvas provide a hint of the darker, infinite space that lies beyond the framed small-scale environment created by this work. Like stars in the sky, these punctuations create deep pools of enigmatic darkness that act as a portal to another dimension, full of mystery and magic.