Lucio Fontana Argentine-Italian, 1899-1968

Lucio Fontana was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1899 and died in Comabbio, Italy, in 1968. He is celebrated for his radical rejection of traditional artistic conventions and his redefinition of the very nature of art itself. Trained initially as a sculptor, Fontana divided his time between Italy and Argentina prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Seeking refuge from the conflict, he returned to Buenos Aires, where, in 1946, he founded the Altamira Academy – a centre for cultural exchange and intellectual innovation. Within this vibrant community of artists and theorists, the Manifesto Blanco (White Manifesto) was conceived in 1946. This seminal text provided the theoretical foundation for Spazialismo (Spatialist Movement), an avant-garde approach led by Fontana that aimed to integrate space, time, and matter into a new artistic language. He officially launched the movement in Milan with the publication of the first Primo Manifesto dello Spazialismo (Manifesto of Spatialism) in 1947.

On returning to Milan in 1948, Fontana began his groundbreaking Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept) series, a body of work that would define his artistic legacy. In these works, monochrome canvases were slashed (tagli) or punctured (buchi), creating openings that revealed the void beyond the painted surface. These interventions, both physical and conceptual, challenged the long-held notion of the canvas as a two-dimensional and untouchable plane, exposing a new dimension of spatial reality. By cutting through the surface, Fontana introduced actual space into the artwork, dissolving the illusion of depth and evoking the infinite expanse that exists beyond material form. Fontana’s acts of cutting and piercing represented a response to the scientific and technological transformations of the twentieth century. In an era marked by rapid progress and cultural upheaval, he sought a new artistic language capable of expressing the limitless potential of modernity. His works, infused with a sense of exploration and discovery, positioned art not as a static object but as an evolving, dynamic force engaging directly with the energies of space and time.

Fontana studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan from 1928 to 1930. His work was first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1930 and continued to appear there regularly and he received the Grand Prize for Painting in 1966. Major retrospectives of his work have been held at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, Venice; Hayward Gallery, London; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Fundación ‘la Caixa’, Barcelona; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Whitechapel Gallery, London. Fontana’s works can be found in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums around the world, including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.

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