Let’s go to the Maci, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Imperia, where a work by the Argentine artist entitled “Concetto Spaziale Attese” created in 1965 is kept. Thanks to this artwork, red, gaudy and with a single central vertical cut, we will deepen the artistic vision of this genius of the twentieth century.
Fontana, father of the Spatialism
Lucio Fontana was born in Rosario, Argentina, on February 19th 1899.
Son of art, his father was a sculptor, he is considered one of the most important artists on the international scene, as well as the initiator and maximum exponent of Spatialism, an artistic current born in 1946 to which other artists will later join, including Giuseppe Capogrossi, Alberto Burri , Agostino Bonalumi and Roberto Crippa.
Fontana is the artist known for the cuts on canvas, which even the least art history enthusiasts will have come across at least once. His artworks, are exhibited in the most important museums in the world.
What is certain is that speaking of Fontana stopping at the image of a torn canvas without investigating its meaning is an understatement.
Today we are here just to investigate a bit deeper in their meaning.
The cuts and the Attese ( waitings )
Many might have wondered why a simple cut has caused such a sensation and, at the same time, been so successful. Simple, it’s not about the cut itself but about what lies beyond.
The key to understanding the artist’s world is to interpret his gesture not as a symbol of the break or ruin of something perfect, but as the possibility that there is something new behind it. Fontana is like a scientist that behaves as if his canvases were an experiment. The result is going beyond two-dimensionality thanks to the cuts.
A matter of space
It is space that is involved and becomes a concept, just like the title of the work itself: “Concetto Spaziale Attese”.
The latter is also enriched by another word, Attese. Once the experiment has been completed and the space has been cut, one is free from the confines of matter and awaits the birth of something new.
