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From 1947, Fontana used the term 'Concetto spaziale' (Spatial Concept) as a generic title for all his series of works. In 1958 he began the series of cut-out paintings he called 'Attesa' (expectation) or 'Attese'.

The cut - in Italian 'taglio' or plural 'tagli' - has often been interpreted as a brutal gesture of destruction, but the opposite was his intention: the cut, which Fontana made with the sensitivity of a sculptor, was an opening of the canvas to something new. He deliberately severed the intact canvas, which for centuries had been respected as a 'sacred surface' and transformed by artists into an illusionistic pictorial space, and worked with the real space in front of and behind it.

Fontana's diary-like notes on the back of the painting remain hidden from museum visitors. This painting, for example, bears the note: 'Ho preso il sole, sono venuto abbronzato' (I have sunbathed, I have turned brown). The individual works in the 'Attese' series are linked to the artist's current life situation and are thus individualised.