Artist Research
Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana was born on February 19, 1899, in Rosario de Santa Fé, Argentina. He worked as a sculptor in his father's studio for several years before opening his own. The year 1949 marked a turning point in Fontana's career; he created his first series of paintings in which he punctured the canvas with buchi (holes), and his first spatial environment, a combination of shapeless sculptures, fluorescent paintings, and black lights to be viewed in a dark room. He was also famously known as the founder of Spatialism. He was best known for his monochrome canvases known as Concetti Spaziale that he would cut or puncture, leaving distinctive gaping slash marks and holes that filled the finished work with an almost violent energy. It is also notable to mention that Fontana volunteered for the Italian army during World War I, serving from 1916 to 1918. He reached the rank of second lieutenant in the infantry regiment and was discharged from service with a silver campaign medal after suffering an arm injury. This is important when looking at my concept because it shows that there is a history of Traumatic experience in Fontanas life.
It is important for me to look at this artist because his name is now synonymous with ‘cuts’ as he is best known for his distinctive marks made into canvases as opposed to onto them. He assaulted his canvas puncturing and slashing them creating minimal yet powerful pieces. When I was thinking about traumas I thought about how Fontana inflicted trauma onto his canvases. This takes my project in a new direction which looks towards representing trauma differently and like Fontana through inflicting it using art as the medium. There is no story, no history or reason, it is the act of slashing and puncturing that captured my attention and the results are mesmerising yet sometimes hard to look at without feeling a sense of threat.
Spatial Concept, Expectations 1965
Spatial Concept, Expectations 1959
Spatial Concept 1949
