Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, 1956, oil, mixed media and glitter on canvas, 134.5 x 100 cm. (53 x 39 3/8 in.)

TEFAF MAASTRICHT

13 – 22 MARCH 2015

STAND 524

Ben Br0wn Fine Arts is pleased to announce its participation in Tefaf Maastricht for the seventh year running. The gallery’s strong expertise in 20th Century Italian art will shine through a fine display of works by , and Michelangelo Pistoletto, exhibited alongside iconic pieces by contemporary artists.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Filled with a sense of whirling motion, Ballerina (1952) is one of Lucio Fontana’s rare painted ceramic . The tactile quality of the piece demonstrates how, throughout the 1950s, Fontana toyed with the boundaries between figurative and abstract art, while expressing his ongoing fascination with the Baroque. This resulted in the Barocchi series, produced between 1954 and 1957.

In Concetto Spaziale (1956) Fontana uses thick paint and glitter as well as his signature Buchi (holes) to imbue the canvas with a multi-dimensionality of space associated with Spacialism, an artistic movement he founded in 1947. ‘I want to open up space, create a new dimension of art’, once stated the artist, who rejected the illusory space of traditional easel and sought to explore art and science in real space.

Fontana’s 1958 Concetto Spaziale, an immaculate white paper canvas perforated with constellations of small cuts, is a fine example of the artist’s exploration of the third dimension in painting in the late 1950s. The progression from holes to cuts marks the artist’s important transition to the 1960’s Attese works. These iconic cut canvases became his primary vocabulary throughout the 1960s until his death in 1968.

La Metà e il Doppio (1974), one of Alighiero Boetti’s emblematic Biro works, is another highlight on the stand. The countless Biro marks create the impression of a vibrating surface texture on which the artist has scribed 987 in Italian on the left panel and 3948 on the right, representing ‘The half’ and ‘Double’ referred to in the work’s title. This type of wordplay and symbolic interaction is characteristic of Boetti’s work.

In his bronze Dono di Mercurio allo Specchio (1971-92), Michelangelo Pistoletto explores the tensions between illusion and reality, subject and object. Two important themes in the artist’s oeuvre converge in this piece to create deliberate interactivity with the viewer: the classical sculptures of his Venus of the Rags series and the mirrors featuring in many of his most famous works.

Moving away from 20th Century Italian art, François-Xavier Lalanne’s Babouin (1984) brings a whimsical touch to the stand. As practical as it is imaginative, this objet is at once surrealist, classical, contemporary, fine art, decorative art and functional design. Typical of the artist’s playful animal sculptures, Babouin serves a dual purpose revealing a working fireplace inside the baboon’s belly.

Exhibited for the first time in Europe, Quatre Coins Jaunes (2013) is a mixed media painting by Miquel Barceló. Inspired by the artist’s visit to the Chauvet Cave in southern France - a rediscovered archeological site holding hundreds of Paleolithic - Barceló’s canvas is an abstract landscape made up of ethereal renderings of horse heads.

ARTISTS EXHIBITED

Miquel Barceló, Tony Bevan, Alighiero Boetti, Enrico Castellani, Lucio Fontana, Ori Gersht, Wang Keping, , Claude Lalanne, François-Xavier Lalanne, René, Magritte, Piero Manzoni, Giorgio Morandi, Vik Muniz, Michelangelo Pistoletto, , Not Vital

Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968) Ballerina, 1952 Signed and dated ‘l. Fontana 52’ Painted ceramic 88 x 41 x 32.5 cm. (34 5/8 x 16 1/8 x 12 3/4 in.)

Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968) Concetto Spaziale, 1956 Signed and dated lower right: l. Fontana 56, inscribed, titled, signed and dated on the reverse: N. 90 / “Concetto spaziale” / l. fontana / 56. Oil, mixed media and glitter on canvas 134.5 x 100 cm. (53 x 39 3/8 in.)

Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968) Concetto Spaziale, 1958 Signed, titled and dated 'l.Fontana / Concetto spaziale / 1958' on the reverse Incision on paper canvas 96 x 130 cm. (37 3/4 x 51 1/8 in.)

Alighiero Boetti (1940 - 1994) La Metà e il Doppio, 1974 Ballpoint pen on paper 2 parts, 70 x 200 cm. (27 1/2 x 78 3/4 in.)

Michelangelo Pistoletto (b. 1933) Dono di Mercurio allo Specchio, 1971-92 Bronze statue and mirror Edition of 4 Statue: 146.6 x 45.7 x 53 cm. (57 3/4 x 18 x 20 7/8 in.) Mirror: 228.9 x 120 cm. (90 1/8 x 47 1/4 in.)

Miquel Barceló (b. 1957) Quatre Coins Jaunes, 2013 Pigments and charcoal on canvas 200 x 300 cm. (78 3/4 x 118 1/8 in.)

François-Xavier Lalanne (1927 - 2008) Babouin, 1984 Cast iron Edition of 8 139 x 80 x 70 cm. (54 3/4 x 31 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.)

BEN BROWN FINE ARTS

Founded in 2004, Ben Brown Fine Arts is located on Brook’s Mews in the heart of Mayfair. The gallery has prominently positioned itself on the contemporary art scene with the sole UK representation of artists such as Ron Arad, Tony Bevan, Candida Höfer, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, Gavin Turk, Not Vital and Heinz Mack. Also renowned for its strong expertise in 20th Century Italian Art, the gallery has been exhibiting the work of Lucio Fontana and Alighiero Boetti, amongst others, since its inception. In 2009 Ben Brown Fine Arts took their first step in an international expansion with the opening of an exhibition space in Hong Kong.

FOR FURTHER PRESS INFORMATION AND IMAGES PLEASE CONTACT:

JEMMA BEELEY BEN BROWN FINE ARTS T. +44 (0)20 7734 8888 12 Brook’s Mews, London W1K 4DG E. [email protected] +44 (0)20 7734 8888 www.benbrownfinearts.com Monday to Friday: 11am – 6pm Saturdays: 10.30 – 2.30pm