Lucio Fontana not only made cuts but also worked for Milan Cathedral. An exhibition remembers him

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Lucio Fontana (Rosario, Argentina, 1899 - Comabbio, 1968), and the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano pays tribute to the great Italian-Argentine artist with an exhibition, entitled Arte Novissima. Lucio Fontana for the Duomo of Milan 1936-1956, dedicated to his work for the Ambrosian Cathedral. The exhibition inside the renovated Gian Galeazzo Hall of the Duomo Museum, sponsored by theArchdiocese of Milan, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the Lombardy Region and the Municipality of Milan, as part of the municipal schedule of "Novecento Italiano," will open on Oct. 26 and open to the public from Oct. 27 to Jan. 27, 2019.
The event will be an opportunity to present to the public the restoration of the last plaster sketch of the Fifth Door of the Duomo, created by Fontana between 1955 and 1956 and never exhibited to the public because it was lying at the Fabbrica’s Cantiere Marmisti. The work is the last that Fontana created for the Fifth Door of the Cathedral. A competition for which he conceived proofs, defined by the Fabbrica as “arte novissima”: a sacred art so modern that it did not find a place, finally, on the facade of the Cathedral. As is well known, in fact, the door was assigned to Luciano Minguzzi, winner ex aequo with Fontana of the competition that the Fabbrica had announced in 1950 for the execution of the work.

The sketch is in addition to the other plaster cast by Fontana currently included in the collections of the Veneranda Fabbrica, namely the Cavaliere made between 1951 and 1952. The additional plaster casts, from which some of the bronze casts exhibited in the Duomo Museum were taken, were granted on deposit by the Fabbrica to the Milan Diocesan Museum, where they are still on display. The precarious state of preservation of the model required a fundamental and delicate restoration operation. The operation, approved by the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Milan, will be concluded in the exhibition, thanks in part to the support of Borsa Italiana.

The exhibition, realized under the direction, of the Scientific Committee Museo del Duomo di Milano chaired by Monsignor Gianantonio Borgonovo, is curated by Michele Aversa, Giulia Benati and Massimo Negri with the coordination of Elisa Mantia. It is organized in three sections and will trace Fontana’s creative adventure in the Duomo, which began in 1935 through the commission of a statue for the interior of the Cathedral(San Protaso, 1940) and continued with the 1950 competition. In addition to the sketch of the V Porta, the exhibition includes the aforementioned plaster Knight and some bronze castings of the sketches created by Fontana for the Cathedral. Other works on display, which include drawings and sculptures by artists involved in the V Porta affair such as Aurelio Mistruzzi, Francesco Messina and Enrico Manfrini, also include some preparatory drawings lent by the Lucio Fontana Foundation. The other Milanese entities that have lent works are the Museo del Novecento in Milan, the Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei and theTriennale Photographic Archive. The exhibition also includes photographic reproductions of shots from theGiancolombo Archive and theUgo Mulas Archive.

The exhibition layout was designed and created by the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo. Alongside the collaboration with the Politecnico, the contribution of the Free University of Languages and Communication IULM was fundamental for the creation of the multimedia products and in particular two documentaries entirely dedicated to the sacred Fontana and his adventure in the Duomo. Two additional events are planned in conjunction with the exhibition: a study day on Fontana’s sacred art, scheduled for January 15, 2019, and the placement of the 1972bronze Assumption in the Duomo.

In fact, on Nov. 3, 2018, in the Cathedral, at the end of the Pontifical on the Solemnity of St. Charles Borromeo, scheduled at 5:30 p.m., Fontana’s altarpiece of the Assumption will be unveiled and placed on the altar of St. Agatha for the duration of the exhibition in the Museum. The work is the bronze version of an altarpiece that the Veneranda Fabbrica decided to cast in 1972 on the basis of the plaster model that the artist modeled at the request of theinstitution in 1955. Fontana, in fact, was supposed to transpose the Candoglia marble sketch, but the project remained unfinished. Alongside the exhibition, there will be many activities promoted by the Veneranda Fabbrica entirely dedicated to the display and in-depth study of the figure of Lucio Fontana in the Duomo. It begins on Oct. 27 at 3:30 p.m. with a special guided tour “Lucio Fontana and the Postwar Years in the Duomo,” but that’s not all. With “Knock, knock, who is Lucio Fontana” children and their families will also experience a truly unique opening designed just for them: appointment on October 28 at 6:30 pm.

For information and reservations you can visit the official website of the Milan Cathedral.

Pictured: plaster sketch of the Fifth Door of the Duomo.

Lucio Fontana not only made cuts but also worked for Milan Cathedral. An exhibition remembers him

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