Table of contents:

Why did the outstanding avant-garde artist of the 20th century Lucho Fontana cut his paintings?
Why did the outstanding avant-garde artist of the 20th century Lucho Fontana cut his paintings?

Video: Why did the outstanding avant-garde artist of the 20th century Lucho Fontana cut his paintings?

Video: Why did the outstanding avant-garde artist of the 20th century Lucho Fontana cut his paintings?
Video: Know the Artist: Hilma af Klint - YouTube 2024, November
Anonim
Image
Image

Lucio Fontana was an Argentine-Italian painter who rose to fame as the founder of spatiality (a movement that focused on the spatial qualities of sculpture and paintings with the aim of breaking through two-dimensionality). A feature of his work was … the presence of cuts and punctures. For what purpose did the artist do this and what impact did he have on the art world?

About the master Lucho Fontana

Infographic: about the artist
Infographic: about the artist

Italian artist Lucio Fontana was born in Rosario di Santa Fe in Argentina to Italian immigrants on February 19, 1899. His father, Luigi Fontana, was a sculptor. The training took place at the Technical Institute Carlo Cattaneo in Milan. Fontana also took part in the First World War in 1917, but returned home a year later due to injury. Then he entered the Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he mastered sculpture. After 4 years, Fontana opened his own studio in Rosario di Santa Fe. The first solo exhibition of Fontana with abstract works was held in 1934 at the Milan gallery del Milione.

Lucho Fontana in officer's uniform 1917-1918 / Fontana with a silver medal for the military campaign, 1917-1918
Lucho Fontana in officer's uniform 1917-1918 / Fontana with a silver medal for the military campaign, 1917-1918

In his landmark work White Manifesto (1946), the artist explored the ideas of creating a new environment that would combine architecture, painting and sculpture. “I don’t want to paint a picture. I want to open up space, create a new dimension, as it infinitely expands beyond the bounding plane of the picture,”wrote Fontana. Fontana had a widespread influence on future generations of artists who began to use installation media to address the theme of space.

Family Lucio Fontana, Seregno, 1911 From left to right: his brother Tito, Anita Campiglio Fontana (his father's second wife), his brother Delfo, Lucio and his father Luigi
Family Lucio Fontana, Seregno, 1911 From left to right: his brother Tito, Anita Campiglio Fontana (his father's second wife), his brother Delfo, Lucio and his father Luigi

Sculpture

Originally trained as a sculptor, Fontana abandoned the traditional constraints of specific art materials and techniques. Instead, he chose to invent his own means of artistic expression in response to the rapidly changing world in which he lived.

Lucio Fontana in his studio on Via de Amicis, Milan, 1933
Lucio Fontana in his studio on Via de Amicis, Milan, 1933

Having settled in Argentina, Fontana began working as a sculptor. The audience accepted the master's work with great interest. His works have been exhibited at numerous exhibitions. Fontana has received various awards and has also been appointed professor of sculpture at the Esquela de Artes Plasticas in Rosario. In parallel, he managed to give lectures at the Academy of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. Thanks to Lucio's contacts with younger artists and intellectuals, as well as new ideas in research, his White Manifesto was published in November 1946.

Giuseppe Mazzotti and Lucio Fontana with sculpture Coccodrillo e Serpente (Crocodile and Snake), Albissola, 1936
Giuseppe Mazzotti and Lucio Fontana with sculpture Coccodrillo e Serpente (Crocodile and Snake), Albissola, 1936

The concept of space

Fontana reinterpreted the physical and theoretical limits of art, viewing artwork as a concept of space. Fontana is best known for the monochrome canvases known as Concetti Spaziale (Concept of Space).

Lucio Fontana “Spatial concept. The End of God
Lucio Fontana “Spatial concept. The End of God

Interestingly, these works he … cut, pierced, leaving characteristic gaping slashes and holes that filled the finished work with almost frantic energy. He made holes, called bucs, and cutouts, called tagli, that pierced the canvas and opened up the space behind it. These holes and slots allow invisible parts of the work to come to the fore and convey meaning. Lucio Fontana's new movement turned objects into three-dimensional spaces and mundane spaces into experimental environments.

Other jobs

In addition to the above works, Fontana was also interested in creating new layers on top of the canvases. For example, small pieces of glass or stone were applied to the surface of the canvases, causing natural reflections and refractions of light that influenced the viewer's perception of the image. At the same time, glass and stone textures demonstrate to the viewer how and with what it is possible to fill the voids (physical objects or natural phenomena).

"Sphere" by Lucio Fontana (1957)
"Sphere" by Lucio Fontana (1957)
Lucio Fontana "Portrait of Teresita" (1940) / "Spatial concept. Paradise "(1956)
Lucio Fontana "Portrait of Teresita" (1940) / "Spatial concept. Paradise "(1956)

Inspired by modernism, in 1949 in Milan, Fontana created the symbolic work Ambiente spaziale a luce nera (Spatial environment in black light), in which a series of swinging phosphorescent elements hang completely from the ceiling. black exhibition space. In the same year, he expanded his research into spatial ideas by starting the cycle Buchi (Holes), paintings that combine the use of colors with the “swirls” of holes made by an awl.

Lucio Fontana in the process of creative work and his concept in black
Lucio Fontana in the process of creative work and his concept in black

In 1966, Lucio Fontana received an offer from one of the largest theaters, La Scala. The Milan Opera House invited Fontane to create the scenery for opera performances and costumes. In particular, the master created costumes and sets for Goffredo Petrassi's ballet "The Portrait of Don Quixote" in 1967. His sketches are light graphic compositions that contain the idea of movement and dance.

In the last years of his career, Fontana devoted his time to exhibiting his work in art galleries around the world. Lufo Fontana left this world at the age of 69 (September 7, 1968) in Italy, just two years after he won the Grand Prix for painting at the Venice Biennale. Today his works are kept in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Art Museum in Basel, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and others.

Recommended: