Lucio Fontana

This full-scale retrospective at the Hayward Gallery featured more than 100 works, including Lucio Fontana's terracotta and ceramic sculptures, paintings and installations.

Prior to this exhibition, Fontana’s work had been exhibited at the Hayward Gallery in group shows including Arte Italiana 1960-82 (1983) and Falls the Shadow: Recent British and European Art 1986 Hayward Annual (1986).

The solo show, which took place in Fontana’s centenary year, was curated by Sarah Whitfield, an independent art historian, writer and curator.

It spanned Fontana’s entire career, from the terracotta and ceramic pieces of the 1930s to the punctured and slashed canvases of the Buchi, Attese and the bronze Nature of the 1960s. Organised around five distinct themes, the exhibition attempted to show how sculpture remained fundamental to Fontana’s work, even when he worked with a two-dimensional canvas.

The exhibition was designed by architect Claudio Silvestrin.

A reconstructed version of Fontana’s Ambiente spaziale (1968), first built for Dokumenta IV, Kassel, was situated on one of the sculpture terraces. The architect Claudio Silvestrin was responsible for the exhibition design.

Architect Claudio Silvestrin's designs for plinths.

Exhibition guide for Lucio Fontana.

During the exhibition, the London Sinfonietta played music within the gallery chosen to complement Fontana’s work.

Artists and writers, including Guy Brett, hosted a series of in-gallery talks.

Draft press release for Lucio Fontana at Hayward Gallery.