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ITALY / Venice / Mani-Fattura: le ceramiche di Lucio Fontana
by Modem
© Modem

until Monday March 02 2026

Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
T : +39 04 12 40 54 11
Dorsoduro 701
I-30123 Venice
Italy


https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/


Manu-Facture: The Ceramics of Lucio Fontana is the first museum exhibition devoted exclusively to the ceramic work of Lucio Fontana (1899–1968), one of the twentieth century’s most innovative and irreverent artists. While Fontana is best known for his iconic slashed and punctured canvases of the 1950s and ’60s, this exhibition, organized by art historian Sharon Hecker, highlights a lesser-known but essential aspect of his oeuvre: his work in clay, begun in Argentina in the 1920s and pursued throughout his life.

Featuring over seventy works, including several never previously exhibited and drawn from prominent public and private collections, the exhibition illuminates the full scope of Fontana’s sculptural vision in clay. His ceramic practice evolved across decades and varied contexts—from early work in Argentina, to Fascist-era Italy, back to Argentina, and again in postwar Italy during reconstruction and the economic boom—revealing clay as a fertile site for experimentation.
The exhibition invites visitors to reconsider Fontana not only as a pioneer of Spazialismo and Conceptual Art, but also as a materially engaged artist attuned to the tactile and expressive potential of clay. It highlights a more intimate, informal, and collaborative side of the artist, shaped by enduring relationships with figures such as the ceramist and poet Tullio d’Albisola and the Mazzotti ceramic workshop in Albisola.

© Modem