Lucio Fontana

Portrait of Antonin Artaud

1968

Multiple of wood and enamel with one copper die-cut plate, one steel die-cut plate, two plexiglass die-cut plates and one artist's book

Not on view

Fontana conceived of Portrait of Antonin Artaud as a hybrid between an illustrated book and an object. Its largest component is a container for a book by Otto Hahn about the French playwright, actor, poet, artist, and theater director Antonin Artaud (1896–1948), whose transgressive ideas fascinated many artists in the 1960s. Fontana’s “illustrations” for the book are oval-shaped sheets of different materials including two in vibrant hues of translucent plexiglass. The die-cut holes in each one extended from his practice of slashing and puncturing his paintings.

Gallery label from

2021

Author Otto Hahn
Medium Multiple of wood and enamel with one copper die-cut plate, one steel die-cut plate, two plexiglass die-cut plates and one artist's book
Dimensions plate (each, irreg.): 7 3/8 x 5 3/4" (18.7 x 14.6 cm); page: 7 9/16 x 5 9/16" (19.2 x 14.1 cm); other (book): 7 3/4 x 5 13/16 x 1 1/16" (19.7 x 14.8 x 2.7 cm); overall (wood multiple, closed): 14 7/16 x 2 9/16 x 9 3/8" (36.6 x 6.5 x 23.8 cm); overall (wood multiple, open): 14 7/16 x 25 1/2 x 9 3/8" (36.6 x 64.7 x 23.8 cm)
Publisher Le Soleil Noir, Paris
Fabricator Unidentified
Edition 80
Credit Monroe Wheeler Fund
Object number 932.1969.1-6
Department Drawings and Prints

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