Lucio Fontana: On the Threshold

A fascinating reassessment of the work of one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century, emphasizing his Argentine background and interdisciplinary approach to both art and life

A major figure of postwar European art and a binational resident of Argentina and Italy, Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) blurred numerous boundaries in his life and art, crossing borders both literally and figuratively. This volume takes a fresh look at the renowned artist whose simultaneous innovations in painting, drawing, ceramics, and sculpture, as well as his spatial explorations, pushed the painterly into the sculptural and redefined the relationship between the arts.

Evaluating Fontana’s interest in synthesis and moving beyond his famous slashed canvases, this book reveals Fontana to be one of the first installation artists. Essays by international experts address his work from both an Italian and Argentine perspective, providing numerous insights into Fontana’s expansive practice. Archival images of environments, public commissions, installations, and now-destroyed pieces accompany lavish illustrations covering his production from 1930 to the late 1960s, establishing a new approach to an artist who responded to the political, cultural, and technological thresholds that defined the mid-20th century.