Lucio Fontana   1899 Rosario di Santa Fé, Argentina - 1968 Varese, Italy   Enraged, Lucio Fontana is said to have slashed one of his "failed" pictures. His constant efforts to improve his pictures is said to have irritated him to such an extent that this violent act in 1958 opened a whole new world of possibilities - in any event, the slash ("Taglio") became his second trademark after the hole ("Bucho").   The replacement of the Bucho by the Taglio is accompanied by a clear change of colours. "Highly simplified, one could say that his colour scale developed from an earthy, ochre-yellow or putty-coloured mass to the monochrome colour fields of the sixties," observes Bernard Ceysson.   "These colours are either pure or broken; they are simultaneously matt and intensive, always elegant and, in the 38-part series "La fine di Dio" (The End of God), they are enhanced by glittering glass stones." It is precisely these pictures that cause sensations and high prices on the international art market.   How did it all begin?   Lucio Fontana is born on February 19 in Argentina as the son of the sculptor Luigi Fontana from Verese and his wife Lucia Bottini, an Argentinian of Italian descent. In 1905, he returns to Italy with his father and settles in Milan. In 1910, Fontana's artistic training begins in his father's sculpture workshop.   From 1914 to 1915, he attends the School of Architecture at the Technical Institute Carlo Cattaneo in Milan, voluntarily participates in the First World War as an infantry lieutenant and later completes his studies as a certified engineer. In 1920, he registers at the Brera Academy of Art in Milan, where, ten years later, he receives his degree in sculpture.   In 1921, Lucio Fontana returns to Argentina and works in his father's studio, where commercial applied art is produced. In 1924, he opens his own sculpture studio. One year later, be makes his debut as an independent sculptor with the exhibition of "Melodias", a portrait study. Fontana takes Aristide Maillol as his role model.   Fontana returns once again to Milan in 1928. He creates terracotta reliefs and portraits, as well as sgraffito cement panels. In Milan, he wins a municipal competition for a bust of Mussolini (1933).   From 1934, several solo exhibitions are organised by, among others, the Galleria del Millione in Milan. His joy for experimentation and the loose execution of his works is occasionally met with incomprehension. In 1935, he begins working with ceramics in Albisola, and continues working with this medium in, among other places, the Sèvres factory.   In Paris, he meets Joan Miró, Tristan Tzara and Constantin Brancusi. He recieves various awards for his ceramic work. In 1940, he returns once again to Argentina. In 1945, he is named professor for sculpture at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and distributes the "Manifesto Bianco" as a flyer.   In 1947, he returns to Milan, where he comes into contact with a group of young artists. As a result of the numerous meetings and discussions, the "Primo Manifesto dello Spazialismo" is written in May and now also bears his name. He sets up his studio in the Via Prina.   Drawn "Concetti spaziali" (Spatial Concepts) are exhibited in a bookstore in Milan. With the "Buchi" series, he soon intensifies his "spatial" experiments in a "painterly" direction. "The hole is my invention, and that's that. After this invention, I can die."   In 1959, Fontana presents his new series of "Tagli". He increasingly attracts the interest of international art critics; in the beginning with Michel Seuphor, Hans Platschek and Nello Ponente, as well as Pierre Restany.   Especially his participation in the exhibition "Monochrome Malerei" (Monochrome Painting) in Leverkusen demonstrates that Fontana now strives to overcome Informel, a movement to which he was among the most prominent European proponents since the late forties. In 1962, the Städtisches Museum in Leverkusen organises a comprehensive retrospective on the initiative of Udo Kulturmann.   In 1968, Lucio Fontana settles for good in Comabbio (Varese), where he restores an old family house and sets up a new studio. Despite his poor state of health, Fontana works on the "Olii", the "Buchi" and especially the "Tagli".   Lucio Fontana leaves behind an enormous oeuvre. It comprises canvas paintings as well as works in bronze, ceramics and even light sculptures. In the initial phase of his career, Fontana commanded various styles, beginning with the almost classical-figurative early works, through a more "Baroque" visual vocabulary, up to the large-format works in metal, some of which measure up to six meters (circa 19 feet) in width.   The later "destroyer of the panel painting", who was equipped with enormous technical skill, wanted to be a modern artist and, at the same time, "maintain the timeless feeling for humanity". This attitude corresponds with his interest in history and anthropology; and it is only in the last few years that it has come to be perceived in its entire scope.     Selected Solo Exhibitions:   1987 Retrospective in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Fondation Caixa de Pensions in Barcelona, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.   1996 Retrospective in collaboration with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan, in the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main and the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna.