Fontana sought to free himself from the spatial framework through agitated movements, fragmented and luminous surfaces and a Baroque-Expressionist gesture set in an alternation of concave and convex shapes. Directly modulating the material with his spontaneous movements, Fontana highlights the softness and versatility of the material being handled. The matter seems to sizzle, becoming very agitated and telluric, though capable of palpable pleasure. Fontana is oriented in the direction of sculptural research that sees shape as an event through light and space, charging the clay with vital energy. In his works, Fontana ceaselessly confronts the techniques and traditional themes that are characteristic of ceramics. He fills his work with landscapes, religious scenes, vegetal and animal subjects and even characters from the Commedia dell’Arte, in order to reinvent them and launch into avant-garde ideas and achievements, the results of which are his famous works Concetti Spaziali, Buchi (since 1949) and Tagli (since 1958).
Lucio Fontana was born in 1899 in Rosario de Santa Fe, Argentina. In 1927 he studied sculpture in Italy and held his first exhibition at the Il Milione Gallery, in Milan (1930). During the following years, he travelled between Italy and France, working with expressionist and abstract painters. In 1940, in Buenos Aires, he taught sculpture at the Beaux-Arts before founding a private school, the Altamira Academy. Then in 1946 he signed the Manifesto Blanco, which was considered to be the first manifesto of the “spatialist” movement. In 1947, Fontana returned to Milan, where a small group soon gathered around his ideas, and led the way to several manifestos. His works have been shown in numerous one-man and group shows around the world, including the Centre Georges Pompidou (1987), the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (1996 - 1997), the Hayward Gallery, London (1999 - 2000), the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York (2006), and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome (2008). Lucio Fontana died in 1968 in Comabbio, Lombardy, Italy.
Exhibitions
Publications
Works
Exhibitions
Design Museum Den Bosch, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Guggenheim Museo Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
Multimedia Art Museum - Moscow House of Photography, Moscow, Russia
Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy
Pirelli Hangar Biocca, Milan, Italy
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italy
GAM Wunderkammer, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy
Musée de l’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Italian Cultural Institute, New York, NY, USA
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Palazzo Lombardia, Milan, Italy
Fondation Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France
Collection Scharf-Gerstenberg, Berlin, Germany
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Turin, Italy
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
The Menil Collection, Museum District, Houston, TX, USA
Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Centre Pompidou Metz, Metz, France
Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy
Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Germany
Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark
Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Galleria d’Arte Moderna et Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt a.M., Germany
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Frieder Burda Museum, Baden-Baden, Germany
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tate Liverpool, UK; travelled to: MMK - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am. Main, Germany, Centre Pompidou, Metz, France
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Berliner Dom, Alexander Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
SCHAUWERK, Sindelfingen, Germany
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL, USA
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Les Abattoirs de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
Galleria Blu, Milan, Italy
Kanalidarte, Brescia, Italy
Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, Germany
Tate St. Ives St. Ives, UK