Hauser & Wirth Publishers’ new publication on Lucio Fontana charts the uncategorizable artist’s exploration of sculpture from the 1920s until his death in 1968.
In the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to Fontana’s sculptural production, various bodies of work from different periods are considered together, highlighting continuity and evolution in the oeuvre of the Italian master.
Characterized by a pioneering approach, the publication conveys the full range of Fontana’s experimentation undertaken on matter.
In a substantial essay, curator and leading Fontana scholar Luca Massimo Barbero explores ceramics as “the ideal material for the Fontanian gesture” and re-examines Fontana’s constant and vocational experimentations with clay, plaster, concrete, and metal.
The publication, a collaboration with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, includes a biographical essay by the Foundation’s Maria Villa, with an in-depth examination of the artist’s sculptural practice.
Scholar Cristina Beltrami, instead, looks back to the early years of Fontana’s career, characterized by a highly personal and ground-breaking style that places him among the pioneers of European sculpture.
This richly illustrated volume allows readers to discover Fontana’s rarely seen sculptural works, which will be exhibited at Hauser & Wirth New York, 69th Street from 3rd November 2022 through 4th February 2023.
Co-published with Hauser & Wirth.
