these holes. But what are they? They are the mystery of the Unknown in art, they are the Expectation of something that must follow."

- Lucio Fontana

Fontana embarked on the Tagli at the end of 1958, partly in response to the developments in contemporary art in Italy in the years 1957 and 1958, particularly Yves Klein’s first exhibition of monochrome paintings in Milan in 1957, Jackson

Pollock’s retrospective in Rome in 1958, and the predominant rise of Art Informel.

In response to the contemporary turn toward action painting at this time, Fontana’s cuts evoked this gestural performance while seeking the realization of a more metaphysical presence.

Fontana combined the highly saturated monochromatic purity of Klein’s canvases with Pollock’s violently physical action. However, whereas Pollock’s painterly dripping technique left an indexical record of his every movement, Fontana’s gesture annihilated this proclivity toward additive mark-making and replaced it with a vandalistic destructiveness.

Drawing attention to the materiality of the picture-plane, Fontana’s cuts question classical interpretations of a ‘figure-ground’ relationship; rather than striving toward an illusion of perspectival depth, Fontana’s punctures create forms within

the canvas that embody a real third dimension of space. Moreover, the painting’s chromatic radiance amplifies the profound darkness of the plunging black recesses that aptly signify Fontana’s quest for ''the Infinite, the inconceivable chaos, the end

of figuration, nothingness.'' (Lucio Fontana cited in Lucio Fontana, exhibition catalogue, London 1999).

The red slashes, such as Concetto Spaziale, Attesa (1965), are undoubtably among the most sought after by international collectors. With its single cut, vertically on the monochrome rich red canvas, this work is truly iconic among the slashes.