SLITS, CUTS AND HOLES YES - BUT NO PRECONCEIVED IDEAS PLEASE
A few days after having seen and enjoyed the Robert Mappelthorpe retrospective, I decided to go and see the Lucio Fontana and on a day which is forbidden in my terms, the weekend. Saturday. I was off as I had been for the « Paris 1900 » for the opening hour at the MAM. Nobody…..no queues inside or out. Now I know what you are thinking. Fontana is associated with torn canvass, slits, holes and as my granddaughter said the other day « even Pinceau (her cat) could do better… » when a friend showed her what we were talking about.
This is what you are thinking of, isn’t it? Spacial concept 1966 Soacial concept 1965 I’m pretty sure that it was Michel Werner the German collector whose first painting or « slit » was a Fontana. I admit that when I saw this, I frankly asked myself « what on earth compelled him to buy that and become a collector because of it? » The explanations at the exhibition in question didn’t clarify too much. It’s a little like Cy Twombly (my pr