Fontana based his innovative spatial art, his ‘spazialismo’, on recent scientific discoveries. His work was intended to reflect the present and point to the future. But the Baroque era was an important reference point for him. Space and time were convincingly handled artistically for the first time in the Baroque, says the Manifiesto Blanco (White Manifesto). The universe had finally been understood entirely in terms of movement.
Despite its rigour, Fontana’s work in fact occasionally exhibits almost Baroque features. This particularly applies to his figural ceramics with sophisticated colour effects. In their apparently continually changing forms we can sense Fontana’s quick hand movements modelling them. ‘Baroque’ was how Fontana himself designated a series of images in which surface sand and glitter engender lively sculptural effects. The series of Pietre (Stones), in which he contrasts material and colour, has something of the Baroque in it.
