At the Magnani-Rocca Foundation all the art of Lucio Fontana in a self-portrait exhibition

From March 12 to July 3, 2022, the Magnani-Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma), at the Villa dei Capolavori, presents the exhibition Lucio Fontana. Self-Portrait, curated by Walter Guadagnini, Gaspare Luigi Marcone and Stefano Roffi.

The exhibition takes its cue from the relationship between Lucio Fontana (Rosario di Santa Fè, 1899 - Comabbio, 1968) and art historian Carla Lonzi (Florence, 1931 - Milan, 1982), a student of Roberto Longhi, who revolutionized the idea of militant criticism with her interview volume Autoritratto. Accardi Alviani Castellani Consagra Fabro Fontana Kounellis Nigro Paolini Pascali Rotella Scarpitta Turcato Twombly published by De Donato, Bari, in 1969. The volume collects interviews with artists in which each one speaks in the first person, expounding reflections on his or her research, the art system as well as his or her private life. Thus emerges the idea of participation and complicity between the critic and the artist, which unhinges the vision of the official critics of the time, with very candid judgments by Fontana on great artists such as Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg.

The exhibition at the Villa dei Capolavori will feature about fifty works that will narratively follow the conversation between Fontana and Lonzi. It is an anthological journey with works representing the main moments of Fontana’s research. Thus, there will be works from various periods, from the sculptures of the 1930s to the Spatial Concepts from the 1940s to the 1960s, as well as the Teatrini and the Nature bronze works; and also, the enormous New York 10 of 1962, copper panels with lacerations and graffiti, in dialogue with light to evoke the glittering modernity of the metropolis, and La fine di Dio of 1963, a large work made in oil, gashes, holes, graffiti and sequins on canvas. The exhibition concludes with works by Enrico Baj, Alberto Burri, Enrico Castellani, Luciano Fabro, Piero Manzoni, Giulio Paolini, and Paolo Scheggi from Fontana’s personal collection. Particularly striking are the photographic series taken by Ugo Mulas of Fontana, of which two works that belonged to the great photographer are also on display; of one of them the photographic documentation of the entire genesis, from the first “hole” to the completed work, is on display.

In addition, it has been possible to recover the audio file of the original, unabridged conversation, where one can hear Fontana’s voice talking about his work, his life as an artist, his activities as a collector, but also his everyday experiences and adventures (Lonzi will publish in the 1969 volume only a part of the long interview). Fontana’s words will be used both as a sound installation and as a narrative thread throughout the exhibition.

An important nucleus of the works on display comes from the Lucio Fontana Foundation in Milan; others are on loan from Mart, Museo Novecento in Florence, CSAC University of Parma, Intesa Sanpaolo Collection, Unipol Group Artistic Heritage, Barilla Collection of Modern Art, Ugo Mulas Archive, Cariparma Foundation Library, Corrado Mingardi Donation, and other prestigious archives and private collections.

The exhibition is made possible thanks to the contribution of Fondazione Cariparma, Crédit Agricole Italia.

For more info: www.magnanirocca.it

Hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept, New York 10 (1962; lacerations and graffiti on copper, 234 x 94 cm (each panel); Milan, Fondazione Lucio Fontana). © Lucio Fontana Foundation, by SIAE 2022

At the Magnani-Rocca Foundation all the art of Lucio Fontana in a self-portrait exhibition

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