Lucio Fontana

Private Collection, Sundsvall
Thence by descent to the present owner

Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana: Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. II, Brussels 1974, p. 163, no. 65 T 76, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 1986, p. 573, no. 65 T 76, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogo Ragionato di Sculture, Dipinti, Ambientazioni,  Vol. II, Milan 2006, p. 760, no. 65 T 76, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is some light, superficial and unobtrusive surface dirt intermittently along all four extreme edges. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
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Executed in 1965, Lucio Fontana's exquisitely crafted Concetto Spaziale, Attesa is as stunning in its colour as it is in its revolutionary form. The canvas is grounded in a monochromatic, almost Kleinian blue, while the single vertical tagli simultaneously evokes spontaneity and control.

Fontana's respect for the advancements of science and technology during the 20^th century led him to approach his art as a series of investigations into a wide variety of mediums and methods. In a series of manifestos, he announced his goals for a 'spatialist' art, one that could engage technology to achieve an expression of the fourth dimension.

The slash is a way of making the viewer look beyond the physical fact of the painting, to what Fontana called a 'free space.' This is as much a philosophical concept as a visual one, with the slash standing for the idea of a space without physical boundaries. The title Attese, which he gave to al his cuts, is usually translated as 'expectations' or 'waiting', suggesting the artist's interest in states of being. In Fontana's hands, the cut demonstrates that purity and decadence are two sides of the same coin, revealing the new and unexplored terrain that lay beyond the canvas. The cut is Fontana's most uncompromising gesture.

In this work, the precise laceration is sharp and essential, immortalising the physical act of its creation and immediately focusing the viewer's attention. Fontana here has taken the painted stroke of movement and transformed it into action. The single slash catalyses the metamorphosis of the two dimensional canvas into a strikingly beautiful art object.

The monochrome blue further emphasises the form of the artwork, and is the only counterpart to the main focus of the centred, vertical slash. The rich saturated layer of blue waterpaint enables the weave of the canvas to show through, further accentuating the striking contrast between the blue of the surface and the darkness of the void.

A work of animated beauty, Concetto Spaziale, Attesa transcends the canvas and the formal qualities of painting, enforcing the idea of the painting as an object.