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Fontana's 'Sculture astratte' (abstract sculptures) are based on materials such as plaster, concrete and rebar. With their incisions, they show the first signs of a surface treatment that would later play a central role in his famous series of 'Buchi' (holes) and 'Tagli' (cuts).
An important moment in this development was Fontana's meeting in 1929 with the artist Fausto Melotti (1901-1986), through whom he met Edoardo Persico (1900-1936), the director of Milan's Galleria il Milione. This gallery was an important forum for abstract art in Milan.
Although a wide variety of artistic styles were officially permitted in Fascist Italy, there was a conservative art criticism that rejected abstract tendencies and also harshly criticised Fontana's abstract works. On the other hand, Fontana actively participated in and benefited from the generous support programmes of the Fascist government. Further information on Fontana's involvement with Italian Fascism can be found in the following pages of this guide.

Fontana exhibited regularly at the Galleria il Milione from 1931. Together with Fausto Melotti, he joined the 'Abstraction-Création' group of artists founded in Paris in 1935. This put him in touch with the international avant-garde. Even in the decades that followed, Fontana did not choose a single style; he worked both abstractly and figuratively. Nor did he make a strict distinction between the genres of painting, sculpture and craft.