Inside Lucio Fontana’s Home and Studio

We take you inside the great Italian artist’s studio, which has remained untouched since he left it.

Milano Art Guide
By / June 5, 2022
Inside Lucio Fontana’s Home and Studio

We take you inside the great Italian artist’s studio, which has remained untouched since he left it.

In Comabbio, the late artist Lucio Fontana spent some days during the holidays and specifically the last months before his death. He loved here so much that he is buried in this small village, and his studio, now home to “Il borgo di Lucio Fontana,” is still preserved here.

Fontana used to buy works by other artists in the area, including ceramics left on some shelves along with a bottle of wine. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.
A number of cardboards placed on an easel show signs of the famous “holes” that Fontana made on the canvases. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.

The studio still retains traces of his work, his easels, the tools he usually used to create his works, bottles of pigments, paint marks on the floor, and his beloved books.

Among the items left in the studio is a telephone guide from 1968, the year Fontana passed away. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.
On one of the easels Fontana wrote his name in block letters. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.

Lucio Fontana loved to spend his summer and winter holidays and, when free, his weekends in Comabbio. In 1967, on doctor’s orders, he settled permanently and abandoned his Milan studio on Corso Monforte. The family home in Comabbio became Fontana’s permanent home-atelier and the meeting place for gallery owners and artists such as Enrico Baj and Renato Guttuso. In this tiny and unpretentious house, Fontana continued to work assiduously until his death in September 1968. The artist’s bond with the village is such that Fontana used to quote it even on the back of his canvases in apparently unusual aphorisms that he used to write to avoid the counterfeiting of his works.

A glimpse of the twentieth-century master’s studio, which remained unchanged after his death. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.
Stains of color left by the artist during his work sessions in the studio are still visible on the floor. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.

Walking across the rooms, one can still see the signs of his presence: the paint marks on the walls and floor, the work clothes soiled with colour and the tools used by the artist to create his works, including the perforated cardboards that show the traces of the famous holes he made in his canvases. The charm and uniqueness of the house are also due to the furnishings, wooden pieces of furniture designed by the artist and made in Comabbio by a carpenter who still preserves the autograph drawings.

Several of the artist’s books also remained in the studio, including “Cosmicomics” (Le Cosmicomiche) by Italo Calvino, and a collection of poetry by Dylan Thomas. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.
In the living room in front of the studio Lucio Fontana used to relax between work sessions. Much of the furniture in these rooms was designed by Fontana and made by local artisans. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.

On the ground floor, the association that preserves the memory of this place has set up an exhibition where you can see photos from the time, portraits of the famous Italian artist with his family or as he rests in the garden adorned with sculptures.

Many personal effects are stored there, including a coat rack with two hats. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.
In a box, the master’s clothes still stained with color are stored. Photo by Gianmaria Biancuzzi for Milano Art Guide.

You can visit Lucio Fontana’s studio during Archivifuturi, a new festival. Free guided tours start from the MA*GA museum in Gallarate.

News staff