Opening. "Color" by Franco Fontana
20/02/2015.
Exhibition. MONDO GALERÍA, [MAD] Spain 20/02 > 04/04/2015
metalocus, ALEX DURO
metalocus, ALEX DURO
Today 20th of February, MONDO GALERÍA opens, for the first time in Madrid, the photo exhibition of Italian photographer Franco Fontana titled "Color", whose compositions are known for their play with color planes through lens.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. ARIZONA. 1979 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. IBIZA. 2008 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. LOS ANGELES. 1990 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. ARIZONA. 1979 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
Vita Nove. 2010. © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. IBIZA. 1990 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. LOS ANGELES. 1991 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
PAESAGGIO URBANO. PRAGA. 1967 © Franco Fontana // Courtesy of SR Arte Contemporanea – MONDO GALERIA.
MONDO GALERIA presents for the first time in Madrid an individual exhibition by the color photographer: Franco Fontana (Modena, 1933). The photos by this prolific Italian photographer present us his own world, created within the parameters set by the photographic lens.
The composition of color is the first thing that jumps out in these images that make up a timeless journey through his work.
In the 60's Fontana built its imagery within the Italian countryside and expands into Europe first and then into the American urban landscape. Finally he comes during the last decades to the female body and later to classical sculpture photography which is still photographing today. His work is part of the best international collections including the MoMA in New York, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris or elIVAM of Valencia.
This exhibition in collaboration with Sabrina Raffaghello Contemporary Art and the Italian Institute of Culture Madrid presents us the work of a photographer who created a nonexistent photographic discourse before himself. Dominating the elements featuring photograph to distort the world, Fontana creates a series of abstract landscapes (in the beginning) and stories full of empty (later) that could send us to a site / place among American literature and Raymond Carver theoretical musings of Italo Calvino.
Kept but casual compositions, small strokes of what we all have in front of us and just a few can see are what give his work a familiarity full of sophistication. The beauty in his work is that the complex appears as easy, and abstract thinking enters the eye as rarely loaded configuration.
Dates.- 20th February to 4th April 2015.
Venue.- MONDO GALERÍA, San Lucas St. 9, Madrid, Spain.
More information
FRANCO FONTANA
Franco Fontana. is an Italian photographer born in Modena, on December, 9th, 1933. He began working as an amateur photographer in 1961. His first personal exhibitions took place in 1963 in Vienna, in 1965 in Turin and in 1968 in Modena. Since then he has participated in more than 400 exhibitions - collective and personal - and his work is in approximately 60 museum collections all over the world. He is best known for his abstract colour landscapes. Fontana's photos have been used as album cover art for records produced by the ECM jazz label. He is known as the inventor of the photographic line referred to as concept of line.
He has signed numerous advertising campaigns for different brands as Fiat, Volkswagen, Ferrovie dello Stato (National Italian Railways), Snam, Sony, Volvo, Versace, Canon, Kodak, Robe di Kappa, Swissair. He works with magazines as Time, Life, Vogue (USA and France), Venerdì di Repubblica, Panorama, and with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and New York Times newspapers.
His works have been published in more than 40 books in various editions and languages and are displayed in many private and public collections all over the world. HIs first book Skyline was published in 1978 in France by Contrejour and in Italy by Punto e Virgola with a text of Helmut Gernsheim.To name a few: MoMA, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo; National Gallery, Beijing; Australian National Gallery, Melbourne; GAM, Turin.
Currently he is the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival.
