Franco Fontana | Sintesi

Tracing more than 60 years of the career: the one of the Modenese artist, master of photography among the most appreciated internationally, which landscape photographs are often associated with modernist abstract painting, in which colour is a key element, while the geometric outlines of the depicted forms obscure the representation of reality. By adopting this innovative approach during the 1960s, Fontana injected a new energy and vitality into the field of creative colour photography. Divided in over three sites – Palazzina dei Giardini, MATA – Ex Manifattura Tabacchi and the Sala Grande of Palazzo Santa Margherita, the exhibition is subdivided into two sections.

The first, curated by Diana Baldon, director of FONDAZIONE MODENA ARTI VISIVE, is installed in the Sala Grande of Palazzo Santa Margherita and in the Palazzina dei Franco Giardini. Including 30 artworks created between 1961 and 2017, the majority of which have never previously been exhibited, selected from the artist’s vast photographic archive, from Modena to Cuba via China, the USA and Kuwait.  The second section, curated by Fontana himself and installed at MATA – Ex Manifattura Tabacchi, presents around 120 photographs selected from the collection of 1.600 artworks that the artist donated to Modena City Council. This section of the exhibition highlights the close relationships the artist fostered with some of the greatest names in international photography. During the mid-1970s, Fontana began to exchange prints with other artists and, over the years, amassed hundreds of works by many of the most important photographers both in Italy and abroad, including Gianni Berengo Gardin, Mario Giacomelli, Luigi Ghirri, Josef Koudelka, Arnold Newman and Sebastião Salgado,