Lucio Fontana

LUCIO FONTANA (Rosario, Argentina, 1899 – Comabbio, Italy, 1968).
“Concetto spaziale,” 1959.
Color stencil on paper.
Unsigned. Edition of 1,500 copies.
Published in the magazine *XXe Siècle*, no. 12, edited by Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Paris.
Provenance: private collection, France.
Measurements: 31 x 24 cm.

Published in 1959, this work marks one of the defining moments in Lucio Fontana’s career, coinciding with the development of his famous Tagli (cuts), which he began in 1958. The composition features a monochrome green surface traversed by two apparent incisions—one vertical and the other diagonal—which create a subtle spatial tension. Using the pochoir technique, the artist transfers the principle of breaking the pictorial plane to the realm of graphic art, although in this case the cuts are represented rather than physically made on the paper. This radical economy of means responds to the tenets of Spatialism, a movement founded by Fontana that sought to transcend the traditional boundaries of painting and sculpture by incorporating space as an essential element of artistic creation.

Lucio Fontana was one of the key figures of the postwar avant-garde. Initially trained as a sculptor, he developed the theoretical foundations of Spatialism beginning in 1947, exploring new relationships between matter, light, movement, and space. His Buchi (holes) and Tagli (cuts) series revolutionized the conception of the pictorial surface and anticipated approaches found in Minimalism and Conceptual Art. His body of work, which encompasses painting, sculpture, ceramics, and installations, has been the subject of major international retrospectives. His work is included in collections such as those of MoMA and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.