LOS ANGELES — Many people are unaware of Jackson Pollock’s sculptures, which he created throughout his career, using clay, stone, mosaic tiles, bone, cement, and wire. The same also applies to Richard Pousette-Dart, Frederick Kiesler, and Cy Twombly, whose careers found traction during an era when female artists were too frequently overlooked and categorization ranked paramount; when one could be either a painter or a sculptor, an architect or designer. But not both, never all. Today, we are luckily accustomed to artists pursuing their concepts in a range of media (including fashion and design), providing us with the opportunity to re-evaluate well-established artists of the past to explore whether our understanding of their oeuvres mirrors a limited view.

Lucio Fontana. Sculpture marks one such important attempt at challenging preconceived notions of this widely revered Argentine-Italian artist, whose slashed and stabbed monochrome canvases (“Tagli,” or “Slashes”) count as his most prominent achievements. The exhibition is the second installment of a projected trilogy of exhibitions on the artist, following a recent presentation of spatial environments at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles. Like its predecessor, Lucio Fontana: Sculpture draws from holdings of the Fondazione and private collections, and in this case, 34 pieces have never been shown in the US, with 14 presented publicly for the first time.

The exhibition starts with a nod to Fontana’s first New York solo show, which was hosted by Martha Jackson Gallery in this exact same townhouse. Even back in 1961, Fontana had opted against sending some of his Tagli, offering in their stead 10 paintings of Venice, in which collaged chards of glass, thick impasto — and yes, holes and slashes — took center stage. Today, one of these dimensional canvases, “Concetto spaziale, La luna a Venezia” (1961), again greets visitors at the entrance of 32 East 69th Street as a poignant prelude to what ultimately amounts to a symphonic display of material experimentation.

Η συνέχεια εδώ.