Franco FONTANA

Introduction

Franco Fontana was born in Modena in 1933. Since the 1960s, he has been one of the great masters of colour photography. His early studies on colour, space, form and light were presented in his first solo exhibition in Turin, at the Società Fotografica Subalpina in 1965, and in Modena in 1968.

He began his aesthetic investigation in 1961; in 1963, he exhibited at the Third International Biennal of Colour in Wien. Between the 1960s and the 1970s he published numerous books and had many solo and group exhibitions throughout Italy and Europe.

His most famous series Landscapes appeared for the first time in1970, in the solo exhibition at Palace of the Diamonds of Ferrara, showing a marvellous visual synthesis between chromatic perception and photographic ability to disclose nature's hidden geometry. In his photographs Fontana isolates essential elements of abstraction from a sequence of forms, shapes and colours: for his pictorial sensibility he has been measured up to eminent painters such as Tobey, Rothko, Poliakoff.

In 1979 a trip in the United States forced him to confront with new urban spaces that deeply differed from the environment he had until then experienced. What he found was a surprising landscape, seemingly chaotic and disharmonic yet bursting with visual stimuli from which he could masterly isolate the most significant elements. Chromatic themes and geometrical forms still prevail in this series, titled Urban Landscape, as the works rarely portray a human figure. It's only later on , with the series Presenza Assenza (end of 1979/1980) that human shapes appeared, in the form of ethereal and disquieting shadows, playing with architectural elements and overturning perspectives.

More eloquent then a tangible physical presence, these shadows symbolize the unconscious and thus emphasize the allusion to Italian metaphysical paintings (De Chirico, Savinio). In fact, in his exploration of American cities, Fontana has often portrayed individuals with their own shadows, thus suggesting one again, through different representations, the unfathomable mystery of human nature. At the same time, his work Sorpresi nella luce Americana, 2001 pays homage to the vivid atmosphere of Edward Hoppers's paintings and to the solitude of the alienated and humble protagonists of urban life. In 1981 he held different workshops in Arles and Venice and published a black and white work for the volume Contact, printed by Lustrum Press (New York). In 1985, at the University of Turin, Fontana held a number of workshops that were later on collected in the book La scrittura fotografica by Liborio Termine. In 1986, he started the successful collaboration with Alexander Liberman for Vogue Usa and Vogue France and also signed the promotional campaign for Volkwagen, Volvo, Ferrari, Grundig, Kodak etc. He subsequently signed several artistic calendars and other numerous advertising campaigns, including works for the fashion industry (Satoh, Versace, Hermes, etc.)

In 1989, he began to collaborate with the magazine Il Venerdi, weekly insert of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and in the same year, he was awarded the Premio della Cultura Presidenza dei Ministri, in Rome. In 1995, he participated in the Venice Biennale with the exhibit Un secolo di ritratto fotografico in Italia 1895-1995. In 2001, he was listed in the Enciclopedia Britannica and represented Italy, together with De Chirico, Schifano and Ceroli, at the First Biennial at The Museo de Arte de Buenos Aires.

Since 2000, Fontana has been carrying out a study on the microcosm of signs and fragments on urban street paving (Asfalti).

Biography

Solo exhibitions (selected)

2022

Horizons, Le Kiosque, Vannes, FR

2018

Horizons, Museum of Photography Charles Nègre, Nice, FR

2017

Palazza Madama, Turin, Italy
Pop Pop Dada Franco Fontana, Florence, Italy
National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje, Montenegro

2016

Museo Lapidarium, Cittanova, Italy
Museum of the City of Vukovar, Croatia

2015

Palazzo della civiltà del Lavoro, Rome, Italy
Italian landscape Italian Institute of culture, Strasbourg, France
Architectural Abstractions, Fondazione Enrico Mattei, Milan, Italy

2014

Fullcolo, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, Italy
Quelli di Franco Fontana, Palazzo Ducale, Pavullo, Italy
MIA con SB Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy

2013

Fotografica Bogota, 2013, Bogota, Colombia
baudoin lebon, Paris, France
Galleria Oradoria, Rome, Italy
Red & Stamp Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Photissima Art Fair - Galleria Raffaghello Contemporary Art

2012

Gallery Shiop SO-What, Castrocaro Terme, Italy
Nettuno Photo Festival, Forte San Gallo, Nettuno, Italy

2011

Fondazione Bottari Lattes, Monforte d'Alba, Cuneo, Italy
Museo regionale di Science naturali, Turino, Italy

2010

Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome in focus Galerie, Cologne, Germany

2009

Galerie Stephen Hoffman, München, Germany
Polaroids, Galleria Cà di Frà, Milano, Italy

2008

Presenze assenze, Galleria Melesi, Lecco, Italy

2007

Paesaggi urbani e naturali - Leggermente Fuori Fuoco, Salerno Galleria Cà di Frà, Milano, Italy
Asfaltieasfalti, Galleria Arte e Arte, Bologna, Italy

2006

Museo de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto, Canada
Galleria Oredaria Arti Contemporanee, Roma, Italy
Franco Fontana. Images, Galleria Boxart, Verona, Italy
20 photographs from the Cotroneo Collection, The European House of Photography, Paris, France

2005

baudoin lebon, Paris, France
Artef Galerie, Zurich, Germany
Magazzini del Sale, Venice, Italy

2004

Palazzo Reale, Milano, Italy
Focus Gallery, London, UK

2003

Route 66, Fondazione Italiana per la Fotografia, Turin, Italy
Edward Steichen Space, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

2002

Route 66, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Galleria Sozzani, Milano, Italy
Clairefontaine Gallery, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Biennale Fotografia Internazionale, Brescia, Italy

2001

Focus Gallery, London, UK
Illa Remmert / Modern Art Gallery of Turin, Italy
Castello Aragonese, Ischia, Italy

2000

Centro Internazionale Scavi Scaligeri, Verona, Italy

1999

Photo&Contemporary, Turin, Italy
Istituto di Cultura Italiana, San Franciscon, U.S.A.

1998

Past Rays Gallery, Yokohama, Japan

1997

Polaroids, baudoin lebon, Paris, France
Galerie zur Stockeregg, Zurich, Germany

1995

Palazzo Ducale, Mantova, Italy
Photology Gallery, Milano, Italy
American House, Frankfurt, Germany

1994

Castello Visconteo, Pavia, Italy
Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

1993

Galeria Railowsky, Valencia, Spain
Tour des Lépreux, Aosta, Italy

1991

Photographical Space, Paris, France
Gallery Diaframma, Milano, Italy

1990

Photography Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Low Block City Hall, Hong Kong
Italy's Cultural Center, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sueden
Kodak Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan

Group exhibitions (selected)

2013

Horizon(s), baudoin lebon, Paris, France

2011

Polaroid [Im]Possible, WestLicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie, Vienna, Austria

2010

Arte Svelata, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Fernweh ..., Clairefontaine Gallery, Luxembourg

2009

Highlights, Clairefontaine Gallery, Luxembourg
Fotografia Astratta, Museum of Contemporary Photograph, Cinisello Balsamo, Milano, Italy
Les nuages... là-bas... les merveilleux nuages, Malraux Museum, Le Havre, France

2008