Detail

“I perforate, the infinite comes through, light seems through. There is no need to paint. Everybody thought I intended to destroy but that is not true. I have built, not destroyed. That is what it is about”, says Lucio Fontana about his perforated paintings which he baptizes “Space Concepts”. With a revolutionary gesture Fontana perforates the two-dimensional canvas with a piercer. For the first time the hitherto untouched surface of the canvas is tackled in its substance. It is covered all over with perforations. On various spots they form geometrical patterns which linger placidly around the t-shape middle bar. With his perforations Fontana intends to represent space both factually and materially without having to fall back on illusionist techniques of depiction such as the use of perspective. The surface opens up into the third dimension. The canvas becomes a permeable membrane between the infinite space in front and the indefinite space behind which would normally remain concealed. Real light flows through the holes and lends them a plastic effect. In his “White Manifesto” of 1946 which sets out and underlines his method of “Spazialismo” the artist calls the new resources of artistic experience which do justice to modern technology and the expansion of perception that accompanies it. To Fontana space is the all-embracing infinite cosmos. Matter is destroyed to give rise to an idea. The essence of the work of art no longer lies in optical effects but in its function it conveyed to the observer an idea of the infinite cosmic space.