Getulio Alviani | Agostino Bonalumi | Alexander Calder | Enrico Castellani | Lucio Fontana | Fausto Melotti | Giulio Turcato | Victor Vasarely | Gianfranco Zappettini
Mazzoleni is pleased to announce its participation at Frieze Masters, 2019. The gallery returns to the fair for third time and will present Celestial Bodies: a display which will comprise post-war works by artists who have drawn boundless inspiration from cosmic observations, contemporary scientific theories, to the first step of man on the Moon.
Celestial Bodies pays homage to the decades of the space race that culminated in the lunar landing of 1969. The display will feature the groundbreaking compositions of Lucio Fontana's cuts and holes that reflects the artist's fascination in man's interstellar conquest. The Moon landing positioned the relationship between man and space in a new light, and Fontana predicted unprecedented artistic developments towards new creative frontiers in his Manifesto Blanco, 1946, which stated, 'The discovery of new physical forces, the mastery of matter and space, have gradually imposed unprecedented conditions on mankind.'
Selected works of Fontana's 'Concetto spaziale' from the 50s and 60s will be presented to highlight the artist's passion for interrogating space, and his investigation beyond the canvas with a bold manipulation of surface and matter.
Pursuing the infinite, investigating space and confronting science are key themes featured within this presentation. Also on display will be works by Giulio Turcato. An influential figure in the Italian world of post-war art, Turcato's painting was based on the expressive use of colour combined with a granular surface in which a dense opaque pigment was applied to the canvas. He started the series 'Superfici lunari' (Moon surfaces) in 1964 and exhibited them two years later at the Venice Biennale. Produced in oil and mixed media on rubber foam, the artworks are inspired by the preoccupation with the space conquest. On display will be exemplary works from the 60s and 70s that continue to explore a new spatial dimension, surface texture and allude to celestial space.
Alongside these, also presented will be 'extroflexions', the protruding shaped canvases by Agostino Bonalumi, (whose exploration of space was deeply influenced by Fontana), 'Superfici' by Enrico Castellani, La Cometa, by Fausto Melotti, Cerchi Virtuali (1967), by Getulio Alviani's, a work that ultimately connects to the action of light on surfaces (which is also explored in astronomy). On display will be striking works by Alexander Calder and Gianfranco Zappettini, which will guide the eyes of the viewer towards different perspectives. Victor Vasarely will be represented by a striking geometrical work from his celestial 'Bellatrix Series' created during his Black and White Period of the late 50s. Such works as Bella-Neg (1957), a short name for the Bellatrix constellation, reflects the artist's interest in the cosmos, during a period when he titled his artworks after stars and constellations.
Presented within a black booth, Celestial Bodies will bring together an artistic interpretation of the cosmos and explore the years of the space race—when the physical reality of the universe became tangible. Moreover, the display will aim to reflect an era in art where the works evoke a spatiality in metamorphosis and the visual translation of a geology of the future.
Opening Days & Hours
Wednesday Preview
2 October (Invitation only)
Thursday Preview
3 October: 11am-8pm
Thursday Private View
3 October: 5pm-8pm
Friday 4 - Saturday 5 October
11am-7pm
Sunday 6 October
11am-6pm