"Fontana and Gormley’s work with sculpture goes beyond time.
In Lucio Fontana’s
works space becomes a timeless and a historical place.
Sign and body interact intimately in the conceptual path
that supports
Antony Gormley's research and that leads to the total rupture of the boundaries imposed between
inside and outside, space and time."
Luca Massimo Barbero
Negozio Olivetti
- Piazza San Marco
Lucio Fontana / Antony Gormley
In the
extraordinary space of the Negozio Olivetti, designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1958, entrusted to the care and
management of FAI, nestled in the porticoes of Piazza San Marco - the exhibition - Lucio Fontana/ Antony Gormley - until November 27 - conceived and curated by Luca Massimo Barbero - one of the world’s leading scholars
of Lucio Fontana as well as a scientific consultant to the Lucio Fontana Foundation. Two masters of sculpture, Lucio Fontana and Antony Gormley, meet for the first time through a
presentation of graphic works, works on paper and sculpture. The exhibition is
built around a concise association of space and light to be found in the work of both sculptors. It develops
across a selection of drawings made by Fontana between 1946 and 1968 and a series of drawings, workbooks
and models that run through all aspects of Antony Gormley's research, together with the presence of some
sculptures by both of the artists.
Antony Gormley - Rise - 1983-1984 - Lucio Fontana
"I make holes; infinity passes through, light passes,
there is no need to paint ... everyone
thought that I wanted to destroy:
but that’s not true, I’ve created, not destroyed."
Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana - 1899-1968 - was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, propelled by a boundless creative outlook which
pushed him to experiment across different forms and methods of expression. Known as the father of Spatialism, from the 1930s the work of
the Italo-Argentine revolutionised the understanding of sculpture, space and painting, prefiguring the art movements of the 1960s and 1970s,
such as Arte Povera, Conceptual Art and Environmental Art. From the outset, Fontana found critical acclaim and his works were the
subject of numerous exhibitions in private and public institutions alike.
Lucio Fontana - Concetto Spaziale -1957
"Lucia Fontana spent a lifetime revealing the fact that space exists behind appearance and
inviting us to experience it. I am thrilled to have this
opportunity to have a dialogue with him through objects
and drawings
in which body and space are continually seen as
equivalent mediums of apprehension."
Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley - Full Bowl - 1977-1978
Antony Gormley -
London, 1960 - is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations
and public artworks that investigate the relationship
of the human body to space. His work has developed the potential opened
up by sculpture since the 1960s through a critical engagement
with both his own body and those of others in a way that confronts
fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature
and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to identify the space of art
as a place of becoming in which new behaviours, thoughts and
feelings can arise.
Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley - Horizon Field Model 1 - 2020
Lucio Fontana - Ambiente Spaziale - 1952
Antony Gormley
Pluck II Model - 2021 - Subject II Model - 2021 - Object Model - 2021 -
Object Model 2 - 2021
Antony Gormley - Workbooks
Antony Gormley - Clay Model 2 - 2021
Lucio Fontana - Scultura Spaziale - 1947
Lucio Fontana - Scultura Astratta - 1934
Lucio Fontana - Studio per Esposizione Spaziale -1948
Antony Gormley - Workbooks
Lucio Fontana - Concetto Spaziale - 1966-1968