Black Landscape (Concetto Spaziale Nero)
- Artist
- Lucio Fontana, Italian, 1899–1968
- Date
- 1966
- Material
- Paint, lacquer, canvas, and wood.
- Made in
- Milan, Lombardy, Italy, Europe
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 212S
- Dimensions
- 51 1/8 x 51 in. (129.9 x 129.5 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer Jr.
- Rights
- © Estate of Lucio Fontana
- Object Number
- 138:1974
NOTES
A uniquely shaped black lacquer frame is silhouetted against a midnight blue canvas perforated with holes. In 1949 Lucio Fontana began to create his Spatial Concept series by piercing and slashing his monochrome canvases in order to unite illusionistic space with real space. Pushing his paintings further into the realm of sculpture, Fontana developed another series near the end of his life, "Little Theatres (Teatrini in Italian)." Such works were based on the spatial organization of stage sets, as seen here. Inspired by the dawn of space travel in the 1960’s, Fontana evokes not only a nocturnal landscape but one that seems to capture the vastness of outer space.
Provenance
by 1968 - 1974
Louise (d.1973) and Joseph Pulitzer Jr. (1913-1993), St. Louis, MO [1]
1974 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Joseph Pulitzer Jr. [2]
Notes:
[1] The work was included in the 1968 exhibition "Works of Art of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr." at the Saint Louis Art Museum. See Buckley, 1968, cat 23.
[2] Deed of Gift, signed December 18, 1974 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, December 19, 1974.
Louise (d.1973) and Joseph Pulitzer Jr. (1913-1993), St. Louis, MO [1]
1974 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Joseph Pulitzer Jr. [2]
Notes:
[1] The work was included in the 1968 exhibition "Works of Art of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Collected by Louise and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr." at the Saint Louis Art Museum. See Buckley, 1968, cat 23.
[2] Deed of Gift, signed December 18, 1974 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Acquisitions Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, December 19, 1974.