Manu-Facture: Lucio Fontana’s Ceramics

Fontana''s late-career work in ceramics receives a sumptuous retrospective

In the latter half of his life, Lucio Fontana (1899–1968) shifted his artistic focus from painting to ceramics. These works encompass a wide range of subjects and functions: from female figures to animals, harlequins, warriors and abstract forms; and different decorative objects made in collaboration with potters, designers and architects. Some of his ceramics emphasize the natural effect of unglazed terracotta, while others are embellished with a range of vibrant glazes in brilliant colors. Accompanying the first major exhibition dedicated exclusively to Fontana''s ceramics, this catalog features around 70 examples of his works. It examines the different processes and techniques he used to create his ceramics and the varied, at times complex relationships that Fontana explored between sculpture and painting, art and handicraft, sculpture and design, ceramics and architecture, decorative objects and conceptual sculptures, and ceramics and photography.