An exhibition in Modena celebrates Franco Fontana by displaying 16 works by the author

From March 27 to June 16 in the renovated spaces of theEx Ospedale Estense the exhibition Franco Fontana. Modena dentro, a tribute to the great master of photography on the stroke of his 90th birthday. The exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Respi, presents a selection of about 15 works by Fontana compared with works by contemporary Italian and foreign artists from national public and private collections.

The selection of Franco Fontana’s works focuses on the commissioning since the 1970s of Modenese, national and international companies that have always given carte blanche to the author’s creativity.

In the artist’s photos coexist the roots of a strongly identifiable tradition, an established model in multiple fields - from art history to design, from technological innovation to Made in Italy, from sensitivity to beauty to the extension of its application in everyday life - and the gaze toward a broader horizon, that of visual culture and its protagonists, an imperceptible iconographic heritage imprinted in the shots taken in more than sixty years of career.

It was precisely this drive toward the “outside,” the search, that also stimulated Fontana’s eye to delve into and become passionate about works by artists seen and known during his world travels: thus were born his personal passions for Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Alberto Burri and others, which became unconscious visual references reflected in the way he framed and took photographs, while always remaining faithful to his own synthetic linguistic style.

Geometry and color, the visible and especially the invisible, time and the moment are the elements with which Franco Fontana breaks down reality and recomposes the image of what already exists beyond the camera lens.

The exhibition features, for immediate and suggestive iconographic comparison, precisely the works of some modern and contemporary artists dear to Franco Fontana, including Mimmo Rotella, Christo, Giuseppe Uncini, Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mauro Reggiani, and Piero Gilardi.

Franco Fontana was born in Modena on December 9, 1933. He began photographing in the late 1950s, devoting himself to an amateur̀ activity. His first solo exhibition was in Modena in 1968 and he dates from that year a substantial turning point in his research. He has published more than 60 books with national and international publishers. He has exhibited worldwide in Galleries and Museums with over 400 participations between group and solo shows. His works are in over 50 Museum collections worldwide.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the Modena Visual Arts Foundation.

Pictured: Franco Fontana, Artemis (1970)

An exhibition in Modena celebrates Franco Fontana by displaying 16 works by the author

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