Lucio Fontana was born in Rosario de Santa Fé in 1899. Son of a sculptor of Italian origins, he studied in Milan and in 1922 returned to Argentina with his father. He returned to Milan in 1928, enrolling at the Brera Academy and studying under the guidance of Adolfo Wildt. In 1930 he participated in his first Venice Biennale and his first solo exhibition was inaugurated at the Galleria del Milione. From 1931 and throughout the following decade, Fontana alternated figurative and abstract production.

In 1935 he also began to experiment with ceramics while 1946 proved to be a decisive year for Lucio Fontana’s research: he founded the Altamira Academy in Buenos Aires which became a center for young artists and intellectuals with whom he wrote the White Manifesto, a document where the theoretical principles of Spatialism are found. Until 1949 he dedicated himself to sculpture, participating in the 1948 Venice Biennale, an event in which he was present continuously until 1968. In 1952 he exhibited the first canvases with “holes” at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan, while in 1958 he presented the first “cuts” at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan.

During the 1960s he created the “La fine di Dio” cycles, monochrome oval canvases with holes; the Teatrini (1964) and the Ellissi (1967) in lacquered wood. Fontana is today considered one of the most important artists in the world for modern art, a protagonist in the collections of the major museums in the world. He passed away in Comabbio in 1968.