For the first time the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, will remain open with its permanent collection in the winter months, through January 8, 1989. This will be the occasion for exhibiting a recent asquisition of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation: Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, attese, 1965, Gift of the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan.
This work, which presents five curved slashes on a white ground, measuring 130 x 97 cm., is the first by Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) to enter the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The artist, who was born of Italian parents in Argentina, was a protagonist of the Spazialismo movement in Milan and Venice in the 1950s, and is considered one of the major innovators of modern Italian painting. In 1977 an important retrospective of Fontana’s work was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. The acquisition of Concetto spaziale, attese, together with previous gifts of works by Piero Dorazio, Edmondo Bacci, Armando Pizzinato and Luciano Minguzzi, constitutes a significant strengthening of the representation of post-war Italian art in the Venetian branch of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
25 important paintings from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection will be sent to the Narodni Galerie, Prague, for participation in the exhibition Modern Treasures from The solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (opening November 1). This Loan will free exhibition space in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, making possible the mounting of a Homage to Lucio Fontana at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection during the same period (opening November 4, 1988, closing March 5, 1989). 11 paintings have been chosen by curator Fred Licht from the collection of the Fondazione Fontana as well as from private collections in Milan and Rome, with the intention of illustrating “the sculptural effect of Fontana’s work.” Fred Licht writes: “The time necessary to establish the proper perspective towards and artist’s work has finally passed for Fontana. We can now understand the pioneering courage of the artist.”
The Homage to Lucio Fontana is supported by grants from the Fondazione Lucio Fontana and from The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York. A full catalog, with an essay by Fred Licht, will be published by Cataloghi Marsilio S.r.l., Venice. From April 12 to June 16, 1989, the Homage will be mounted at the Rayburn Foundation gallery, New York.
The extended season of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection during the winter months is made possible through a grant from United Technologies Corporation. The cultural programs of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are supported by the Regione Veneto and the Istituto per i Beni Librari e Enti Culturali of the Ministero per i Beni Culturali.