Robilant+Voena returns to TEFAF New York with a presentation that celebrates the ceramics of Lucio Fontana, juxtaposed with two outstanding paintings by American giants of the 20th century, Alexander Calder and Sam Francis. Lucio Fontana (1899–1968), the artist who took abstract painting into the third dimension by puncturing and slashing his canvases, perhaps unsurprisingly considered himself above all a sculptor. Throughout his career, in works which radically defied traditional categories of painting and sculpture, he relentlessly explored the subject of space by defining and redefining its relationship to the viewer through the investigation of the three-dimensional properties of a wide range of materials, from canvas and metal to glass and clay.
Our selection for TEFAF NYC offers a sweeping survey of Fontana's groundbreaking ceramics, from early figurative works that engage with traditional subjects in a fresh, gestural manner, to the informal works of the 1960s, that embody the purity of the artist's Spatialist ambitions. The earliest ceramics on display date from the 1940s, a period in which he was working across figurative and abstract approaches. Works such as _Battaglia _(1947) and _Crocifisso _(1950–51) offer mesmerising interpretations of age-old subjects from Western art, demonstrating the artist's radical innovation, while also illustrating a progression towards an increasingly abstract, Spatialist art. These artworks are joined by a series of decorative elements from the 1950s, revealing Fontana's great admiration for Baroque art, their swirling forms revitalised with an energy for the modern era.
Bringing the journey to its culmination is a powerful_Concetto Spaziale_, created in 1962-63, from black terracotta with a single hole at its centre. The ceramic _buco _is complemented by a white four-slash _tagli _dating from 1965, that demonstrates the symbiosis of the artist's work across paintings and sculptures. A meditative Superficie blu by Enrico Castellani, dating from 1961, embodies this artist's unique investigations into space and perception, offering a counterpoint to Fontana's puncturing and slashing of the pictorial surface.
Alongside these post-War Italian pieces, our presentation also include two paintings by Calder and Francis, executed in 1947 and 1957 respectively. Significantly, the painting _Composition _by Calder will be exhibited in public for the first time since it was purchased from the artist. This juxtaposition alludes to the important dialogue between Europe and the United States in the 20th century, with both Calder and Francis spending periods in Europe, especially in Paris, which proved formative in the development of their oeuvres.
We will also be showing two bronze sculptures by Harumi Klossowska de Rola, offering a counterpoint to the ceramic works and an example of a compelling contemporary approach to the age-old tradition of bronze statuary.
10–14 May 2024
Collectors Preview, by invitation only:
9 May 2024
Friday 10 May– Monday 13 May | 11am – 7pm
Tuesday 14 May | 11am – 6pm
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
NY 10065 New York
United States