Lucio Fontana (1899–1968) was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor, and theorist. Known as the founder of Spatialism, he was a pioneering exponent of postwar abstraction and the first known artist to slash his canvases—an act that symbolized a radical rejection of traditional artistic conventions.

In Concetto Spaziale, Fontana punctures and scores the painted surface, turning the canvas from an image into an object. His signature cuts and gouges speak to a cosmic vision, opening the artwork to space, time, and the void beyond the picture plane.In this 1972 Concetto Spaziale, created shortly before his death, Fontana pierces the painted surface with a single deliberate hole, surrounded by etched and incised gestures in the oil paint. A rupture of tradition, an opening into infinite space. The canvas becomes a skin, wounded, expressive, and alive with possibility.

Fontana’s works are held in the world’s foremost institutions, including MoMA, Tate, Centre Pompidou, and the Museo del Novecento in Milan, reflecting his enduring influence on conceptual and minimalist art.

Provenance
Marcello Rumma Collection, Salerno
Luigi Mazzella Collection , Rome
Private Collection (acquired from the above)
Sotheby's Milan, Modern and Contemporary Art Sale, 26th May 2016, lot 40
Private Collection, Europe

Literature/Press
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana, Catalogue Raisonné des Peintures et Environments spatiaux, Brussels 1974 , vol. II, pp. 116-117, illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Fontana: General Catalogue, Milan, 1986, vol. I, p. 394 , illustrated
Enrico Crispolti, Lucio Fontana Catalogue raisonné of sculptures, paintings, environments, Milan, 2006, vol. II, no. 62 O 17, p . 578, illustrated