
© Fondazione Lucio Fontana / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Fondazione Lucio Fontana / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Fondazione Lucio Fontana / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.



Lucio Fontana
Italian, born Argentina, 1899-1968
Concetto spaziale, Attese (Spatial Concept, Waiting), 1960
oil on canvas
support: 19 7/8 x 28 3/4 x 1.75 inches (50.48 x 73.02 x 11/16 cm); framed: 20 7/8 x 29 7/8 inches (53.02 x 75.88 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Gift of The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, Inc., 1971
1971:4.8
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Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms
In the late 1940s, Lucio Fontana began puncturing the surface of sheets of paper and canvases in an attempt to blur the distinction between two- and three-dimensionality. Over the next two decades, he continued to seek new ways of developing the hole as his signature gesture. In Spatial Concept, Waiting, Fontana covered the canvas with paint and then sliced the picture plane from top to bottom using a utility knife, gently prying each incision open with his hands. Lastly, he backed the canvas with black gauze. This final step not only stabilized the work but also created an illusion that was important to Fontana—suggesting a mysterious space just behind and beyond the canvas itself. This aspect of his compositions was crucial for the artist, who once said, “I do not want to make a painting; I want to open up space, create a new dimension, tie in the cosmos, as it endlessly expands beyond the confining plane of the picture.”
Label from Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s, June 30–December 30, 2018
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Other Works by This Artist
Collection Highlights All Collection Highlights
- La source de la Loue (The Source of the Loue) ,
- Composition ,
- Cinema ,
- Street in Meknes ,
- Femme retroussant sa chemise (Woman Lifting Her Chemise) ,
- The Anguish of Departure ,
- Chemin de halage à Argenteuil (Towpath at Argenteuil, Winter) ,
- Paysans dans les champs, Éragny (Peasants in the Fields, Éragny) ,
- Limit of the Twilight ,