Lucio Fontana

Lucio Fontana, born in 1899 in Rosario de Santa Fe, Argentina, was the founder of the Spatialist Movement. He was sent to Italy at the age of 6 and stayed there until 1922, working with his father as a sculptor. In 1928, he resumed his studies at the Academia di Brera in Milan under Adolfo Wildt. When the Second World War erupted, he moved back to Argentina, where he established the Academia Altamira. In 1946 he wrote his first manifesto, the White Manifesto, in which he challenged the two dimensional concept of painting in the West. It is at this time that he introduced the perforations of canvases into his work. This is considered the first step to Spatialism. He continued to expand this concept in five further manifestos until 1952. In 1958, he introduced the slashes into his paintings. He continued to explore this concept until his death in 1968.