(Rosario di Santa Fe, Argentina 1899–1968 Comabbio)
Concetto Spaziale, signed, dated L. Fontana 57, on the reverse titled, signed, dated Concetto Spaziale l. fontana 57, oil, glitter, holes on canvas, 100 x 81.4 cm, framed, (PP)

The work has been registered by the Archivio Lucio Fontana under the archive no. 57 BA 26.

Provenance:
Galleria La Salita, Rome (label on the reverse)
Private Collection, Bologna
Christie’s London, 30 June 2009, lot 17 (Certificate of provenance available)
Private Collection, Europe 

Exhibited:
Copenhagen, Moderne Italienisk Maleri, 1958, no. 74 with ill. (label on the reverse);
Rome, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Pittura italiana contemporanea, June - October 1958;
Faenza, Galleria Comunale d’Arte, Omaggio a Gian Tomaso Liverani gentiluomo faentino e gallerista d’avanguardia, September 2002 - January 2003, no. 2 with ill.

Literature:
A. Pellegrini, New Tendencies in Art, New York 1966 with ill. page 81;
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: catalogue raisonné des peintures, sculptures et environnements spatiaux, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, no. 57 BA 26 with ill. page 53;
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: catalogo generale, Vol. I, Milan 1986, no. 57 BA 26 with ill. page 180;
E. Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: catalogo ragionato di sculture, dipinti, ambientazioni, Vol. I, Milan 2006, no. 57 BA 26 with ill. page 334

“[B]eyond perspective…the discovery of the cosmos represents a new dimension, it is infinity, so I make a hole in this canvas, the basis for all art, and in doing so have created an infinite dimension…It is exactly this idea, that it is a new dimension which corresponds with the cosmos…And it is this hole which creates the void behind it…Einstein’s discovery of the cosmos in the infinite dimension, without end. And so here we have: foreground, middle ground and background… what do I have to do to go farther? …I make holes, infinity passes through them, light passes through them…”
(Lucio Fontana quoted in E. Crispolti, Spatialism and Informel. The Fifties, p.144-150 in “Lucio Fontana”, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 1998, p.146)

“This now demands a new art form, one which responds to the necessity of this new vision. The Baroque has guided us in this direction, in all its unsurpassed grandeur – where the plastic form is inseparable from the notion of time, here the images appear to abandon the plane and continue the movements they suggest in space. This conception arose from man’s new idea of the existence of things; the physics of that period revealed the nature of dynamics for the first time. It is now established that movement is an essential condition of matter at the beginning of the universe’s creation.” (Lucio Fontana, Manifesto tecnico dello Spazialismo, 1946)

Executed in 1957, Concetto Spaziale belongs to Lucio Fontana’s important and celebrated Baroque series.
Its lively composition, together with the bold brushwork and radiant glow, are reminiscent of elements of Art Informel; the surface is dominated by contrasts, with glittering particles of sand scattered over the thick layer of paint, and deep holes that accentuate this glow.

The flashes of yellow paint add dynamism to a surface that is already filled with textural contrast, with glitter and with holes punched in the surface. The audacious colouring and sensational distribution of light intensify the feeling of spatial infinity, demonstrating that this work is one of the artist’s masterpieces. Its dynamism is not least the consequence of the yellow patches, which structure the painting and whose contours and shapes suggest movement.
More than any other cycle, Fontana’s Barocchi series demonstrate a fascination with the aesthetics of the Baroque, a constant point of reference for the artist throughout his career. Movement, the passage of time, matter passing through space: these are at the core of Fontana’s Spatialism. And it was this sense of movement that was so crucial to the Baroque, as Fontana repeatedly explained.

A painting from the Baroque series (ref. 57 BA 52) very similar to the one presented here is held in Rome by the GNAM (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna)

article Lucio Fontana - new baroque