'I have invented a formula that I think I cannot perfect. I succeeded in giving those looking at my work a sense of spatial calm, of cosmic rigor, of serenity with regard to the infinite. Further than this I could not go.'—Lucio Fontana
Spanning over a metre in width, Spatial Concept, Waiting (1960) is an exceptional early example of Lucio Fontana’s signature tagli (cuts), which the artist began making in late 1958 and would dominate the triumphant final decade of his practice.
Fontana’s tagli were philosophical gestures, creative rather than destructive: in cutting the canvas open, Fontana transcended centuries of art history bound by the two-dimensionality of the picture plane to reveal the infinity of space beyond, an enigmatic fourth dimension in which he saw the limitless future of humankind in the 'spatial era.' Having first pierced the canvas with buchi (holes) in 1954, Fontana spent some years experimenting with surface ornamentation, painting with thick impastos and often embedding glass fragments and glitter into his canvases, before arriving at the serene austerity of the monochrome tagli, truly the apex of his audacious, ever evolving formal vocabulary.
With its hypnotically pure white surface sliced with a quartet of vertical incisions, the present work is among the earliest examples of this ground-breaking series. Creating a rhythmic cascade of gliding movement, the gently angled cuts of Spatial Concept, Waiting send ripples of energy through and beyond the work’s surface, transforming it from a static, inert pictorial surface into a dynamic object that interacts and encompasses the space surrounding it—it is neither painting nor sculpture, but a 'Spatial Concept'.
The cuts alternate in a paired dance between longer and shorter lengths, brought to life by their supple, curving motion and rhythmic arrangement. This at once balletic and calligraphic arrangement exemplifies the elegance with which Fontana gave visual realisation to his conceptual innovation.
Lucio Fontana himself summarized his artistic intention as follows:
“When I work as a painter on one of my perforated pictures, I have no intention of making a painting: I want to open a space, create a new dimension of art and enter into a relationship with the cosmos that extends beyond the limited surface of the painting into infinity.”
Lucio Fontana is famous for his slashed and punctured canvases.
Throughout all his work—which included paintings, ceramic sculptures, and light-based installations—the artist demonstrated a relentless interest in surface and dimensionality; his material explorations helped blur the boundaries between 2D and 3D disciplines.
Fontana helped pioneer the Spatialist movement, which attempted to integrate a fourth dimension into visual art. He studied under his father, an Italian sculptor, before attending Milan’s Accademia di Brera.
His work has been exhibited in New York, Milan, Zürich, London, Berlin, and Rome, and belongs in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museo Reina Sofía, and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, among others.
Fontana’s innovative theories prefigured later developments in environmental art, performance art, and Arte Povera.
