Major show of Lucio Fontana’s work at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong announced for 2021
- Argentine-Italian founder of Spatialism movement produced a vast body of work, very little of which has been shown in Hong Kong
- Fontana’s work, defined visually by the use of neon lights, vivid colours, and often a dramatic single tear in the canvas, explores spatial dimensions
Art gallery Hauser & Wirth will bring works by Argentine-Italian painter and sculptor Lucio Fontana, founder of the Spatialism movement, to Hong Kong in 2021, it announced on Thursday.
Co-presented by the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, the Hong Kong show is part of a trilogy of exhibitions to showcase part of the artist’s vast body of work; the other two will be held at the gallery’s Los Angeles and New York branches over the next two years.
Known for being averse to working with commercial institutions, Fondazione Lucio Fontana’s collaboration with Hauser & Wirth is primarily educational.
Iwan Wirth, president and co-founder of the gallery, said it felt a “shared mission” with the foundation not only to create an international platform for scholarly study and critical evaluation of the artist’s oeuvre, but also to foster “public appreciation of Fontana’s work, and to deepen an understanding of how this great master and innovator of the 20th century exerted an impact that is still being felt today”.
Spatialist art is art that embraces science and technology. Fontana’s work, defined visually by the use of neon lights, vivid colours, and often a dramatic single tear in the canvas, explores spatial dimensions.
Wirth says: “We are inspired by the explosive creativity of artists in Italy during the years immediately following the second world war and believe there is so much value in sharing their work on a wider international stage: their reputation is well understood within Italy but Fontana and his peers have been under-represented in museum exhibitions outside of Europe.”
