With bare hands

Lucio Fontana is often associated with the slashes and punctures that disrupted the canvas, opening windows beyond its flat surface. Yet his beginnings in Argentina, where he was born in 1899, were rooted in expressive sculptural work. Influenced by Wildt and Archipenko, Fontana pursued a dense, rounded plasticism. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection now presents Manu-Facture: The Ceramics of Lucio Fontana, the first museum solo show dedicated to his ceramics, curated by Sharon Hecker. Featuring around 70 pieces, the exhibition highlights Fontana’s tactile engagement with clay, from Argentina in the 1920s to postwar Italy. These pieces range from baroque figures to abstract miniatures and reveal a vibrant, physical creativity distinct from his iconic cuts. Long seen as craft, Fontana’s ceramics are now gaining recognition, embodying his spatialist vision in three-dimensional form.

Featured image: Lucio Fontana, Coccodrillo, 1936-37, St. Moritz, Karsten Greve © Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milano, by SIAE 2025