Fontana

Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana, founder of the Spatialist art movement, is known for his slashes (tagli), gashes, and perforations (buchi): "I want to open up space, create a new dimension, tie in the cosmos, as it endlessly expands beyond the confining plane of the picture.“ Fontana is a rare artist’s book published on the occasion of his exhibition at the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice, June 1958. The book is no. 515 in a limited edition of 600 copies. Two hundred copies each of three color variations—green, red-orange, and yellow⁠—were produced for the cover, which is pierced by Fontana’s emblematic buchi. The book features an introduction by Italian art critic Giampiero Giani, a brief biography of the artist, color plates of 12 works by Fontana, and a photo of the artist in the courtyard of his Milan studio by Ugo Mulas. This book is an excellent complement to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s collection of Fontana, which includes sculptures, slashed paintings, and drawings.