Lucio Fontana's Neon Sculpture Installed at Guggenheim Bilbao for Three Years

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has installed Lucio Fontana's 'Struttura al neon per la IX Triennale di Milano' in its atrium, where it will remain for three years. Created in 1951 for the staircase of the Triennale di Milano, the neon work consists of 100 meters of twisted, chaotic neon tubes, embodying Spatialist principles. The installation results from a collaboration between the Fondazione Lucio Fontana in Milan and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Fontana, born in Rosario, Argentina in 1899 and died in Varese in 1968, is considered the father of Spatialism. He co-authored the 'Manifesto Bianco' in 1946 with his students, which laid the theoretical groundwork for the movement. His famous 'Tagli' (cuts) transcend canvas flatness, blurring painting and sculpture. From the late 1940s, he created 'Ambienti spaziali'—rooms and corridors with Wood lamps, neon lights, or phosphorescent decorations to disorient viewers. The Bilbao installation, previously shown in the 2019 exhibition 'Lucio Fontana. En el umbral,' now dialogues with Frank Gehry's architecture, offering shifting perspectives visible both inside and outside. Paolo Laurini, president of the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, noted Fontana's special relationship with architects and how the work naturally complements Gehry's structure.