The Tornabuoni Art gallery has uncovered an exceptional canvas perforated by Lucio Fontana, Le Jour, lost for more than 30 years. Starting April 26th, the artwork will be revealed for the first time to the public in an exhibition, Lucio Fontana, rediscovery of a masterpiece, at the Parisian space of Tornabuoni Art.

During the exhibition, a documentary of its creation will be projected. Together with this canvas, over twenty works will be presented: ceramics, works from the Baroque period, craters, the series of cuts, productions all known under the common title of Concetto Spaziale.

Le Jour is one of the rare artworks of Fontana to have been realized and documented in front of a camera. Critics and historians had knowledge of its existence thanks to a film testifying its creation but lost its trace in the 1980s. Tornabuoni Art went in search of the lost canvas. It is an exceptional discovery; Le Jour (1962) is one of the largest gold paintings known today by Fontana. Created in 1962, Le Jour, is the result of a perforation by Lucio Fontana of a canvas of his friend, Jef Verheyen, in the house of the art collector Louis Bogaerts in Knokke, Belgium. The documentary of this performance will be projected at the gallery and at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Tornabuoni Art’s commitment to Italian artists and the oeuvre of Lucio Fontana culminates in this joint event, at the Musée d’Art Moderne and the gallery. This double homage celebrates the historical importance of a work of universal recognition by institutions and collectors. Having lent an important number of artworks to the MaM for its exhibition, Tornabuoni Art is one of the main lenders for the retrospective.

ABOUT TORNABUONI ART

Tornabuoni Art represents the most important Italian artists from the second half of the 20th century (Fontana, Castellani, Manzoni, Dorazio, Bonalumi, Dadamaino, Boetti, etc.). Furthermore, the gallery continually presents artworks from international avant-garde
artists of the 20th century (Picasso, Miró, Kandinsky, Hartung, Poliakoff, Dubuffet, Lam, Matta, Christo, Wesselmann, Warhol, Basquiat, etc.) together with the main artists of the Italian Novecento (De Chirico, Marandi, Balla, Severini et Sironi).

Tornabuoni Art is the leading gallery for the oeuvre of Lucio Fontana and contributes to the knowledge, the circulation and the valorization on the market. Every new exhibition space the gallery opens is traditionally inaugurated with an exhibition dedicated to the
Italian Master of Spatialism : Lucio Fontana.

Every solo show is commissioned in close relation with the artist or the foundation that represents him and documented by a bilingual catalogue published by the gallery. The exhibitions are carried out in collaboration with Tornabuoni Arte in Florence, the first of the many galleries opened by Roberto Casamonti, in 1981, in the street that gave the gallery its name. Thereafter Tornabuoni Arte opened exhibition spaces in Milan in 1995, Portfino in 2001, Forte Dei Marmi in 2004 and in Paris in 2009.

Tornabuoni Art participates in international art fairs such as the FIAC and the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris, TEFAF in Maastricht, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Artefiera in Bologna and Frieze Masters in London.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Exhibition Lucio Fontana, rediscovery of a masterpiece from April 26th to June 21st 2014
Exhibition catalogue Lucio Fontana, published by the Tornabuoni Art Gallery and available in the gallery