Lucio Fontana

Lucio Fontana

Lucio Fontana

Lucio Fontana

Lucio Fontana

Following his return to Italy in 1948 Lucio Fontana exhibited his first "Ambiente spaziale a luce ner" (Spatial Environment) at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan -- a temporary installation consisting of a giant amoeba-like shape suspended in the void in a darkened room, and lit by neon light. 

From 1949 on he started his so-called "Spatial Concept" (or slash series), consisting of holes or slashes on the surface of monochrome paintings, drawing a sign of what he named "an art for the Space Age."

He devised the generic title "Concetto spaziale" (spatial concept) for these works and used it for almost all his later paintings. These can be divided into broad categories -- the "Buchi" (holes), beginning in 1949, and the "Tagli" (slashes), which he instituted in the mid-1950s.