ID:
501201
Duration (hours):
42
CFU:
6
SSD:
STORIA DELL'ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 22/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course aims to present thematic or monographic insights into art from Neoclassicism to the present day, paying particular attention to the interpretation of works, the relationship between artistic languages and the historical, political and socio-cultural context, and the complex dynamics of the art system, thus giving a voice not only to artists, but also to gallery owners, critics, curators, collectors, publishers, auction houses and other key figures. Through the course, students will acquire a good command of the methodological, critical and historiographical tools of contemporary art history in order to understand, analyse and contextualise, also in relation to independent research, the work of particular artists or artistic movements and the development of the issues addressed. Direct involvement in events dedicated to contemporary art - starting with Cremona Contemporanea | Art Week, an event that brings contemporary art into dialogue with the city's historical and artistic heritage - will be a further opportunity to put the knowledge acquired during the course into practice.
Course Prerequisites
The course presupposes the basic knowledge of the history of contemporary art, from Romanticism to the most recent experiences, and of the art system. Knowledge that can be acquired through the corresponding institutional course (History of Contemporary Art).
Teaching Methods
The course will be delivered in a blended format, integrating face-to-face lessons with teaching modules specifically designed for remote and asynchronous learning. Lectures will use online multimedia resources and PowerPoint presentations projected onto a screen and then made available to students. Some topics will be explored in depth through the reading, commentary and analysis of critical and programmatic texts. The training activities may be supplemented by visits to exhibitions, museums, archives or artists' studios. A further opportunity may be the direct involvement of students in events dedicated to contemporary art organised in the city of Cremona.
Assessment Methods
The exam consists of an individual oral interview that focuses on the topics covered in class and is aimed at ascertaining the knowledge acquired, including the ability to recognize, analyze and contextualize appropriately authors and works examined during the course, as well as to know how to give a critical reading. The test covers at least four distinct topics. The final evaluation is based on the degree of understanding and deepening of the topics presented and on the student's ability to integrate the knowledge acquired during the course.
Texts
Mani-Fattura: le ceramiche di Lucio Fontana, edited by Sharon Hecker, exhibition catalogue (Venezia, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, 11 October 2025 – 2 March 2026), Marsilio, 2025.
Paolo Campiglio, Lucio Fontana. La possibilità di un oltre, Johan & Levi, 2025.
The entries Albisola; Baumbach, Erich E.; Catalogo ragionato; Ceramica; Colore; Futurismo; Grès; Mosaico; Natura morta; Picasso, Pablo; Scultura; Sèvres; Terracotta; Tullio d’Albisola in Dizionario Lucio Fontana, edited by Luca Pietro Nicoletti, Quodlibet, 2023.
One book/text (two for non-attending students) from the following list:
Paolo Campiglio, “Io sono uno scultore e non un ceramista”. La ceramica di Lucio Fontana nella seconda metà degli anni Trenta: uno scritto e alcune ceramiche inedite, in «Faenza. Bollettino del Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche di Faenza», 1-2 (1994), pp. 34-41.
Paolo Campiglio, Lucio Fontana. Torso Italico, Milano, Scalpendi, 2014.
Lucio Fontana, Lettere a Tullio d’Albisola (1936-1964), edited by Luca Bochicchio, Abscondita, 2023.
Lucio Fontana, Manifesti Scritti Interviste, edited by Angela Sanna, Abscondita, 2015.
Lucio Fontana. La scultura in ceramica, edited by Pier Giovanni Castagnoli, Fabrizio D’Amico e Flaminio Gualdoni, exhibition catalogue (Bologna, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, 1 October – 24 November 1991), Electa, 1991. In particular, the essay by Pier Paolo Pancotto, Fortuna critica della scultura in ceramica di Lucio Fontana, pp. 13-53.
Enrico Crispolti, Fontana ceramista, in Albisola, gli artisti e la ceramica, edited by Franco Dante Tiglio, exhibition catalogue (Albisola Marina, Albisola Superiore e Milano, 1990-1991), Savona, Fratelli Spirito, 1990.
Andrea Bacchi, Ritorno al Barocco. Fontana Leoncillo Melotti, exhibition catalogue (ML Fine Art-Matteo Lampertico), edited by Id., Christian Marinotti, 2021.
Sara Fontana, Sculture vestite a festa. L’avventura di Fausto Melotti nella ceramica, in Sara Fontana e Ruggero Montrasio (editors), Fausto Melotti. Trappolando, exhibition catalogue (Milano, Galleria Montrasio; Roma, De Crescenzo&Viesti), Silvana Editoriale, 2016, pp. 12-51 e Sara Fontana, Scultore e/o ceramista? Riflessioni su una testimonianza di Lucio Fontana (“Tempo”, 21 settembre 1939), in «Cose vecchie e cose nuove»: fonti, risorse digitali e ricerca storica. Per Miriam Turrini, edited by Gianluca Albergoni, Valeria Leoni, Adelaide Ricci, Roma, Viella, 2025.
Federica Guth, “Quasi con senso di vendetta, sfociai nella scultura policroma”. La scultura dipinta di Francesco Messina, in “Bollettino dei monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie”, XXXI, 2013, pp. 303-325.
Un futuro c'è stato - Il y a bien eu un futur, exhibition catalogue edited by Paolo Campiglio (Rodez, Musée Soulages, 22 June – 3 November 2024), Paris, Gallimard, 2024. In particular the essay by Luca Bochicchio, Picasso est Picasso, mais Fontana avait déja commencé avant de lui, pp. 47-53.
Lucio Fontana. Catalogo ragionato delle sculture ceramiche, edited by Luca Massimo Barbero, Milano, Skira, 2023. In addition to the editor’s text, students will select a small selection of works or a brief period of production to study in depth.
Please note: Johan & Levi offers students a discount and free delivery (provided they purchase ten or more copies) on Paolo Campiglio’s monograph Lucio Fontana. La possibilità di un oltre (Johan & Levi, 2025). Please contact Rossella Crippa by email at: segreteria@johanandlevi.com
Paolo Campiglio, Lucio Fontana. La possibilità di un oltre, Johan & Levi, 2025.
The entries Albisola; Baumbach, Erich E.; Catalogo ragionato; Ceramica; Colore; Futurismo; Grès; Mosaico; Natura morta; Picasso, Pablo; Scultura; Sèvres; Terracotta; Tullio d’Albisola in Dizionario Lucio Fontana, edited by Luca Pietro Nicoletti, Quodlibet, 2023.
One book/text (two for non-attending students) from the following list:
Paolo Campiglio, “Io sono uno scultore e non un ceramista”. La ceramica di Lucio Fontana nella seconda metà degli anni Trenta: uno scritto e alcune ceramiche inedite, in «Faenza. Bollettino del Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche di Faenza», 1-2 (1994), pp. 34-41.
Paolo Campiglio, Lucio Fontana. Torso Italico, Milano, Scalpendi, 2014.
Lucio Fontana, Lettere a Tullio d’Albisola (1936-1964), edited by Luca Bochicchio, Abscondita, 2023.
Lucio Fontana, Manifesti Scritti Interviste, edited by Angela Sanna, Abscondita, 2015.
Lucio Fontana. La scultura in ceramica, edited by Pier Giovanni Castagnoli, Fabrizio D’Amico e Flaminio Gualdoni, exhibition catalogue (Bologna, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, 1 October – 24 November 1991), Electa, 1991. In particular, the essay by Pier Paolo Pancotto, Fortuna critica della scultura in ceramica di Lucio Fontana, pp. 13-53.
Enrico Crispolti, Fontana ceramista, in Albisola, gli artisti e la ceramica, edited by Franco Dante Tiglio, exhibition catalogue (Albisola Marina, Albisola Superiore e Milano, 1990-1991), Savona, Fratelli Spirito, 1990.
Andrea Bacchi, Ritorno al Barocco. Fontana Leoncillo Melotti, exhibition catalogue (ML Fine Art-Matteo Lampertico), edited by Id., Christian Marinotti, 2021.
Sara Fontana, Sculture vestite a festa. L’avventura di Fausto Melotti nella ceramica, in Sara Fontana e Ruggero Montrasio (editors), Fausto Melotti. Trappolando, exhibition catalogue (Milano, Galleria Montrasio; Roma, De Crescenzo&Viesti), Silvana Editoriale, 2016, pp. 12-51 e Sara Fontana, Scultore e/o ceramista? Riflessioni su una testimonianza di Lucio Fontana (“Tempo”, 21 settembre 1939), in «Cose vecchie e cose nuove»: fonti, risorse digitali e ricerca storica. Per Miriam Turrini, edited by Gianluca Albergoni, Valeria Leoni, Adelaide Ricci, Roma, Viella, 2025.
Federica Guth, “Quasi con senso di vendetta, sfociai nella scultura policroma”. La scultura dipinta di Francesco Messina, in “Bollettino dei monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie”, XXXI, 2013, pp. 303-325.
Un futuro c'è stato - Il y a bien eu un futur, exhibition catalogue edited by Paolo Campiglio (Rodez, Musée Soulages, 22 June – 3 November 2024), Paris, Gallimard, 2024. In particular the essay by Luca Bochicchio, Picasso est Picasso, mais Fontana avait déja commencé avant de lui, pp. 47-53.
Lucio Fontana. Catalogo ragionato delle sculture ceramiche, edited by Luca Massimo Barbero, Milano, Skira, 2023. In addition to the editor’s text, students will select a small selection of works or a brief period of production to study in depth.
Please note: Johan & Levi offers students a discount and free delivery (provided they purchase ten or more copies) on Paolo Campiglio’s monograph Lucio Fontana. La possibilità di un oltre (Johan & Levi, 2025). Please contact Rossella Crippa by email at: segreteria@johanandlevi.com
Contents
Lucio Fontana sculptor and ceramist
Lucio Fontana, known for his “Holes” and “Cuts” on canvas, also had a lifelong passion for ceramic sculpture. He practised this technique tirelessly from 1936, when he was a regular at the Mazzotti factory in Albisola (alongside his Futurist friends), until the early 1960s, producing some two thousand works, ranging from small pieces to monumental works. As early as 1939, the weekly magazine “Tempo” published Fontana’s essay "Le mie ceramiche", in which the artist, with some modesty, declared himself “a sculptor and not a ceramist”, heralding a dialectical conception of the ceramic medium that would develop over the following decades. Fontana’s experimentation with ceramic materials—also expressed in works with religious themes and intended for architectural settings, and regularly presented at the Venice Biennales and the Milan Triennales—would prove decisive for his spatialist research. The course will address these themes, which have recently undergone a critical and collector’s rediscovery, contextualising them within the international art-historical scene.
Lucio Fontana, known for his “Holes” and “Cuts” on canvas, also had a lifelong passion for ceramic sculpture. He practised this technique tirelessly from 1936, when he was a regular at the Mazzotti factory in Albisola (alongside his Futurist friends), until the early 1960s, producing some two thousand works, ranging from small pieces to monumental works. As early as 1939, the weekly magazine “Tempo” published Fontana’s essay "Le mie ceramiche", in which the artist, with some modesty, declared himself “a sculptor and not a ceramist”, heralding a dialectical conception of the ceramic medium that would develop over the following decades. Fontana’s experimentation with ceramic materials—also expressed in works with religious themes and intended for architectural settings, and regularly presented at the Venice Biennales and the Milan Triennales—would prove decisive for his spatialist research. The course will address these themes, which have recently undergone a critical and collector’s rediscovery, contextualising them within the international art-historical scene.
Course Language
Italian
More information
Non-attending students, in addition to the compulsory texts, will choose two titles from the optional bibliography listed under the item Testi di riferimento. Students authorised to benefit from inclusive teaching will have at their disposal, on the Kiro platform, recordings of lectures and PowerPoint presentations, as well as other supports, defined from time to time, useful for individual study. Students are in any case invited to contact the teacher, also to identify the tools and strategies best suited to their needs.
Degrees
Degrees
HISTORY AND PROMOTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
Master’s Degree
2 years
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