Lucio Fontana: Drawings and Graphic Works from the Teresita Fontana Collection

Within the editorial landscape dedicated to Lucio Fontana, the catalogue for the exhibition held at the Istituto Italo-Latino Americano in Rome in 1987 occupies a distinctive position. Produced in collaboration with La Biennale di Venezia, this volume documents drawings and graphic works from the Collezione Teresita Fontana, the body of works preserved by the artist's widow. The cover, reproducing an iconic photograph of Fontana in the act of piercing one of his celebrated 'buchi' canvases, constitutes in itself a visual document of considerable art-historical interest.

Bibliographic notes

The catalogue belongs to the tradition of occasional publications linked to major monographic exhibitions dedicated to the master of Spatialism. The 1987 edition, first and unique in its configuration, represents a significant contribution to the documentation of Fontana's graphic oeuvre, an aspect of his production sometimes overshadowed by the fame of his 'Concetti spaziali'. The collaboration between the Istituto Italo-Latino Americano and La Biennale di Venezia confers institutional authority upon the project, reflected in the scholarly quality of the critical apparatus. The volume documents works on paper and prints that had rarely received such systematic attention, offering scholars primary material for understanding the artist's creative process through his preparatory works and graphic experiments.

Provenance & condition

The provenance of this copy is not documented beyond its acquisition by the current owner through specialist antiquarian market channels. As an exhibition catalogue from the 1980s, the print run is not specified but can be presumed to have been intended primarily for institutions, scholars and collectors present at the opening or interested in Fontana documentation. The general state of preservation appears consistent with a volume of approximately forty years: the photographic cover, a distinctive element of considerable visual impact, may show typical signs of use and time, such as slight abrasions or minor oxidation. The integrity of the internal pages and the legibility of the iconographic apparatus remain fundamental elements for the overall assessment of the copy.

Market value

The BookOracle valuation places this catalogue in a price range between €80 and €150, with a rarity index classified as 'discrete' (42/100). This positioning reflects several market factors: on one hand, the consistent interest in documentation relating to Lucio Fontana, an artist of the highest rank in the international post-war panorama; on the other, the very nature of the volume as an exhibition catalogue, a category that occupies an intermediate position in the antiquarian market between the art book proper and documentary ephemera. Consultation of specialist platforms including AbeBooks, ZVAB and Maremagnum confirms this price range, with copies in varying conditions fluctuating within the indicated bracket. The presence of the cover photograph depicting Fontana at work constitutes an added value element, transforming the catalogue into an object that combines documentary function with iconographic suggestion. For collectors of Italian contemporary art catalogues or for libraries specialising in Spatialism and twentieth-century art, this volume represents a reasonable and documentarily significant acquisition.

Why it matters

The importance of this catalogue transcends its monetary value and resides in its contribution to understanding Fontana's graphic universe. Whilst the 'tagli' and 'buchi' have dominated the critical and commercial narrative surrounding the artist, the drawings and graphic works offer a more intimate view of his creative process, his formal experiments and the genesis of ideas that would later find expression in the spatial works. The Collezione Teresita Fontana, documented in this volume, moreover represents a primary source of exceptional relevance: who better than the artist's life companion could have preserved and selected the most representative works of his graphic research? For scholars of the Spatialist movement and those concerned with post-war Italian art, this catalogue constitutes a consultation tool still relevant today, a bridge between the public dimension of the great canvases and the more intimate, almost diaristic dimension of sheets and prints. In an art market where Fontana achieves million-pound valuations, possessing documentation of his graphic production means accessing a more approachable yet no less significant dimension of his creative genius.