.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘I think Matter is important to the evolution of art, but the artist must control it, it is what the artist uses for his new creation, but the important thing, the most important thing is the Idea…’
L. FONTANA
'[the] Baroque was a leap ahead…it represented space with a magnificence that is still unsurpassed and added the notion of time to the plastic arts. The figures seemed to abandon the flat surface and continue the represented movements in space’
L. FONTANA
Executed in 1948, Testa di Medusa emerged during a period of intense experimentation in Lucio Fontana’s career. Fontana had spent most of the Second World War in Argentina, where the seeds of the Spatial Movement had been sown. This was an art of movement, of dynamism, which would eventually lead the artist to break away from figuration and embrace a futuristic simplicity of forms. ‘Man is tired of the forms of painting and sculpture,’ he declared in the Manifesto Blanco, a treatise penned in conjunction with a group of avant-garde artists in 1946, for whom Fontana was something of a figure head. ‘The oppressive repetitions show that these arts have stagnated in values that are extraneous to our civilization, and have no possibility of development in the future… we abandon the practice of all the forms of known art, we commence the development of an art based on the unity of time and space’ (Mainfesto Blanco, 1946, in E. Crispolti and R. Siligato (eds.), Lucio Fontana, exh. cat., Rome, 1998, p. 116). Fontana envisioned an art which truly reflected the modern epoch in which he was living, one which embodied the speed and energy of a world governed by machines, where rockets had attained speeds hitherto inconceivable and space travel was rapidly becoming a possibility. He returned to Milan in 1947 with a radical new artistic outlook, entering a critical phase of creativity which would lay the foundations for the future evolution of his art. Sculptures such as Testa di Medusa may thus be seen as important transitional works, representing the earliest manifestations of Spatialism in Fontana’s art, as he began to experiment fully with the concepts and theories that were then absorbing his artistic thinking.
Elegantly combining the Art Deco aesthetics of his pre-war works with the burgeoning character of his revolutionary Spatialist theories, the Medusa of the title appears in a whorl of movement, her hair filled with a vivid sense of swirling motion as its tendrils snake outwards into space. The manner in which the serpentine fronds spiral from the bulk of the head appears reminiscent of images of the Milky Way or anthropomorphic depictions of the sun, their twirling forms stretching into the immediate space of the sculptor, introducing a deeper dialogue between the sculpted head and its surroundings. Echoing the iconography of ancient mosaics, sculptures and frescoes that surrounded the artist in Italy, Fontana’s Medusa stares defiantly out at the viewer, her face contorted in a wail of pain as she falls victim to the cunning trickery of the heroic demi-god, Perseus. Yet, there may be some degree of knowing irony on Fontana’s part in his choice of subject matter, as he imbues Medusa, a monster famous for her ability to petrify anyone foolish enough to look at her, with such an energetic sense of life and movement.
One of the most striking aspects of Testa di Medusa is the rich sense of materiality in the sculpture, emphasised in the miniature peaks and troughs of the highly-articulated surface, which trace the movements of the artist’s hands as they moved across the material, shaping and modelling the wet clay to create the dramatic form of his fearsome gorgon. After years of painstaking labour working in marble and bronze, Fontana had moved decisively away from these traditional materials in the 1930s, preferring to use plaster and clay as they allowed him to rapidly mould shapes into being in a more direct manner. Fontana greatly appreciated the ease and immediacy afforded by these malleable media, as well as the greater sense of tactility they instilled in his works. As Fontana explained, ‘People called my ceramics primeval. The material looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake, yet it was motionless’ (Lucio Fontana, ‘La mia ceramica,’ in Tempo, 21 September 1939). They also allowed him to explore the nature and meaning of the artistic gesture, a concept which would remain central to his art throughout the rest of his life.
In this way, the gestural, dynamic and dramatic rendering of the sculpturehighlights one of the central influences which underpinned Fontana’s Spatialist theories at this time: the art of the Baroque. For Fontana, the way in which Baroque artists represented expressive movement through space – concepts central to his own Spatialist programme – was unparalleled. Their techniques and approach to forms fascinated him throughout his career, and the heightened sensuality and sumptuousness of many of his works can be traced back to their examples. His passion for the art of this period is evidenced most clearly in the development of his barocchi, a series that Fontana began in the mid-1950s. Vigorously modelled in bold, multifaceted relief, Testa di Medusa comes alive under Fontana’s touch, the animated play of light and shadow across its surface beautifully illustrating how the artist used the central tenets of the Baroque aesthetic to forge his own unique, abstract vision.
L. FONTANA
'[the] Baroque was a leap ahead…it represented space with a magnificence that is still unsurpassed and added the notion of time to the plastic arts. The figures seemed to abandon the flat surface and continue the represented movements in space’
L. FONTANA
Executed in 1948, Testa di Medusa emerged during a period of intense experimentation in Lucio Fontana’s career. Fontana had spent most of the Second World War in Argentina, where the seeds of the Spatial Movement had been sown. This was an art of movement, of dynamism, which would eventually lead the artist to break away from figuration and embrace a futuristic simplicity of forms. ‘Man is tired of the forms of painting and sculpture,’ he declared in the Manifesto Blanco, a treatise penned in conjunction with a group of avant-garde artists in 1946, for whom Fontana was something of a figure head. ‘The oppressive repetitions show that these arts have stagnated in values that are extraneous to our civilization, and have no possibility of development in the future… we abandon the practice of all the forms of known art, we commence the development of an art based on the unity of time and space’ (Mainfesto Blanco, 1946, in E. Crispolti and R. Siligato (eds.), Lucio Fontana, exh. cat., Rome, 1998, p. 116). Fontana envisioned an art which truly reflected the modern epoch in which he was living, one which embodied the speed and energy of a world governed by machines, where rockets had attained speeds hitherto inconceivable and space travel was rapidly becoming a possibility. He returned to Milan in 1947 with a radical new artistic outlook, entering a critical phase of creativity which would lay the foundations for the future evolution of his art. Sculptures such as Testa di Medusa may thus be seen as important transitional works, representing the earliest manifestations of Spatialism in Fontana’s art, as he began to experiment fully with the concepts and theories that were then absorbing his artistic thinking.
Elegantly combining the Art Deco aesthetics of his pre-war works with the burgeoning character of his revolutionary Spatialist theories, the Medusa of the title appears in a whorl of movement, her hair filled with a vivid sense of swirling motion as its tendrils snake outwards into space. The manner in which the serpentine fronds spiral from the bulk of the head appears reminiscent of images of the Milky Way or anthropomorphic depictions of the sun, their twirling forms stretching into the immediate space of the sculptor, introducing a deeper dialogue between the sculpted head and its surroundings. Echoing the iconography of ancient mosaics, sculptures and frescoes that surrounded the artist in Italy, Fontana’s Medusa stares defiantly out at the viewer, her face contorted in a wail of pain as she falls victim to the cunning trickery of the heroic demi-god, Perseus. Yet, there may be some degree of knowing irony on Fontana’s part in his choice of subject matter, as he imbues Medusa, a monster famous for her ability to petrify anyone foolish enough to look at her, with such an energetic sense of life and movement.
One of the most striking aspects of Testa di Medusa is the rich sense of materiality in the sculpture, emphasised in the miniature peaks and troughs of the highly-articulated surface, which trace the movements of the artist’s hands as they moved across the material, shaping and modelling the wet clay to create the dramatic form of his fearsome gorgon. After years of painstaking labour working in marble and bronze, Fontana had moved decisively away from these traditional materials in the 1930s, preferring to use plaster and clay as they allowed him to rapidly mould shapes into being in a more direct manner. Fontana greatly appreciated the ease and immediacy afforded by these malleable media, as well as the greater sense of tactility they instilled in his works. As Fontana explained, ‘People called my ceramics primeval. The material looked as if it had been hit by an earthquake, yet it was motionless’ (Lucio Fontana, ‘La mia ceramica,’ in Tempo, 21 September 1939). They also allowed him to explore the nature and meaning of the artistic gesture, a concept which would remain central to his art throughout the rest of his life.
In this way, the gestural, dynamic and dramatic rendering of the sculpturehighlights one of the central influences which underpinned Fontana’s Spatialist theories at this time: the art of the Baroque. For Fontana, the way in which Baroque artists represented expressive movement through space – concepts central to his own Spatialist programme – was unparalleled. Their techniques and approach to forms fascinated him throughout his career, and the heightened sensuality and sumptuousness of many of his works can be traced back to their examples. His passion for the art of this period is evidenced most clearly in the development of his barocchi, a series that Fontana began in the mid-1950s. Vigorously modelled in bold, multifaceted relief, Testa di Medusa comes alive under Fontana’s touch, the animated play of light and shadow across its surface beautifully illustrating how the artist used the central tenets of the Baroque aesthetic to forge his own unique, abstract vision.