Artist: Lucio Fontana 1899 – 1968

Year: 1968

Work: Mixed media sculpture & additional leather-bound booklet & 4 sculptural elements

Materials:  Lacquered wood multiple with leather-bound booklet and four additional sculptural elements in brass, stainless steel, and plexiglass

Dimensions: 37cm x 21cm x 6,5cm

Provenance: Private Belgian collection

Description

Portrait of Antonin Artaud belongs to a remarkable series conceived by Lucio Fontana at the end of the 1960s, in which he extends his spatial investigations into the realm of the object and the multiple. Rather than presenting a conventional portrait, Fontana evokes the presence of Artaud through a carefully constructed ensemble of elements—combining material, gesture, and association.

The lacquered wooden container holds a set of sculptural components alongside a booklet dedicated to the French poet and theorist, whose radical thinking resonated with Fontana’s own search for a new artistic language beyond traditional representation. The interplay between the contained elements reflects a shift in Fontana’s practice toward a more intimate and conceptual form of expression.

The edition is structured across eight distinct colour variants, each produced in ten examples. The present work is number 70, the first of the magenta series, underscoring both the rigour and nuance of Fontana’s approach to seriality. Each example is individually signed and numbered, reinforcing the tension between repetition and uniqueness.

Positioned at the intersection of sculpture, object, and idea, this work offers a concise yet compelling articulation of Fontana’s late oeuvre.