Lot 409 D

The present work is the reworked printing plate of the etching: Serie Rosa, 1966, aquatint etching, cf. Ruhé/Rigo E-27.

In 1966, the pink series was created, a series of five aquatint etchings that were produced in Giorgio Upiglio's workshop in Milan. A central shape encompassed by a vivaciously engraved frame is depicted in each of these works. The surface of the printing plate itself remains intact.
Following the completion of the series, Lucio Fontana reworks one of the steel plates in his studio. He repeatedly beats the back of the picture carrier with a hammer and a chisel until the surface opens up creating gaps of different sizes. Due to the gaps in the picture carrier, a sculptural piece of work is created which exposes the view into the space behind the surface.
Lucio Fontana dedicates this work, Matrice di incisione, to his printer Giorgio Upiglio with whom he worked together not only on the realisation of this series but also on further etchings.
„Towards the end of the period in which the „Serie Rosa“(1966) was printed, Fontana took an etching plate from the series after the prints were numbered and signed. I applied a layer of acid resistant varnish and Lucio Fontana furnished the plate with a dedication to me. The etching plate itself was not an autonomous artwork. There was a smithy located on the ground floor of my print shop. We went downstairs and with a large hammer and chisel, Fontana beat the reverse side of the drawn form till the plate cracked open. In this way he created a split so that it became a unique, autonomous artwork.“ (Giorgio Upiglio in: Harry Ruhé und Camillo Rigo, Lucio Fontana (ed.), Graphics, Multiples and more, Amsterdam 2006, p.48)