La morocha

Created in Lucio Fontana’s homeland of Argentina, La morocha was the artist’s final figurative sculpture before he turned to abstract painting and sculpture. The sharp, angular planes and emphatic folds of the subject’s clothing and hair animate the static form, reflecting Fontana’s interest in creating dynamism in his work. Modeled directly by hand in terracotta, the sculpture retains a certain sketchlike immediacy, with visible impressions of the artist’s fingers. In Argentina, the term la morocha commonly refers to a woman with dark hair, a feature here deliberately left uncolored by the artist.