(ANSA) - BERLINO, 07 OTT - Italian Ambassador to Germany Armando Varricchio attended the opening of the exhibition 'Lucio Fontana: Erwartung' at the Van der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal. Almost thirty years after the last retrospective exhibition on the Italian artist, reads a note from the diplomatic office, the Van der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal is displaying around one hundred works by the renowned Italian artist in the exhibition 'Lucio Fontana: Erwartung', which was born out of the collaboration between the Van der Heydt Museum and the Lucio Fontana Foundation in Milan and sponsored by the embassy.
The Van der Heydt Museum has always recognised Fontana as a fundamental figure in art history, acquiring the first 'Spatial Concepts' as early as 1965 and 1969. Since 1986, the Von der Heydt-Museum has also owned one of the characteristic sectional views of the popular 'Waiting' group of works.
The current exhibition 'Lucio Fontana: Erwartung' aims to make the importance of the artist's work known on German soil as well. This is also why a section of the exhibition is devoted to the wide reception of Fontana's work in the German art world, in particular the fruitful collaboration with the photographer Lothar Wolleh (1930-1979), author of some iconic portraits of the artist.
Great prominence is also given to the author's influence on artists such as Piero Manzoni and Yves Klein, and a focus is devoted to the 'ZERO' group, founded in the late 1950s in North Rhine-Westphalia and consisting of renowned artists such as Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Guenther Uecker. In addition to the ambassador, the opening ceremony was attended by the museum's director Dr. Roland Moenig, Uwe Schneidewind, mayor of the city of Wuppertal, Jolanda Lamberti, director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Cologne, Silvia Ardemagni, president of the Lucio Fontana Foundation in Milan, among others.