3. He founded the Spatialist movement

In 1946, with the publication of the Manifiesto Blanco in Argentina, Lucio Fontana helped define a new kind of art, unshackled from the classic disciplines of painting and sculpture and closely linked to the dimensions of space and time. In 1947, having returned to Italy, he came into contact with a group of other young artists and critics; after various meetings and conversations, they published the Primo Manifesto dello Spazialismo [First Manifesto of Spatialism], later followed by other texts outlining these theories, like the Manifesto Tecnico dello Spazialismo [Technical Manifesto of Spatialism] of 1951:

“We have renounced the practice of familiar art forms and are working to develop a kind of art based on the unity of time and space… We think of art as a sum of physical elements: color, sound, movement, time, and space, brought together in a physical and mental whole. Color, an element of space; sound, an element of time; and movement, unfolding in space and time. These are the foundations of Spatialist art.” (from a talk given by Lucio Fontana at the Milan Triennale in 1951, published in Lucio Fontana, Manifesti Scritti Interviste, ed. Angela Sanna [Milan: ABSCONDITA, 2015], 47)

1. His work ranged beyond “Holes” and “Cuts”
2. He was born in Argentina and moved between South America and Italy for many years
3. He founded the Spatialist movement
4. His Ambienti spaziali influenced the development of international art movements
5. He experimented with materials that were innovative for the time
6. Fontana’s first Ambiente spaziale appeared on a magazine cover in 1949
7. Fontana was fascinated by the first rocket launches into space
8. His works even appeared on television
9. He worked with the leading architects of his era