Even if one should not know the name Franco Fontana (Modena, Italy, 1933), surely anyone has stumbled upon one of his images and probably remembers it. His shots are attractive, iconic, unique, and their satisfying effect is instantaneous; one realizes this by visiting the exhibition Franco Fontana. Colore at the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia, curated by Studio Fontana. But one realizes also that once bewitched by its magnetism, no matter how hard one ponders a Fontana photograph, one will find nothing more than what had immediately appeared.

Franco Fontana, “Autostrada”, 1974, ® Franco Fontana, courtesy the artist and Brescia Musei

Unlike other great Italian photographers from the 1970s onward, Fontana indulges in photography’s illusory ability to make contingent worlds seem perennial and perfect, but without the awareness that is required to legitimately exploit this potential. This inherent effect of the medium of photography, that is, its responsibility and inextricability vis-à-vis reality, has been the subject of reflection and experimentation by countless critics, thinkers and artists; ignoring the issue neither resolves it nor disproves views opposed to one’s own, but simply places one outside the discourse on photography as art. The photographer at best can call to mind abstract pictorial compositions, but as John Szarkowski writes (in an essay in the famous 1976 book William Eggleston’s Guide), as far as photographs with this characteristic are concerned «it is their unhappy fate to remind us of something similar, but better».

Franco Fontana, “San Francisco”, 1979, ® Franco Fontana, courtesy the artist and Brescia Musei

«In his photographs Fontana exercises violence on reality», says Caterina Mestrovich, a specialist in the photographer’s work, in an essay in the exhibition catalog; but with what end does Fontana indulge in such power if not to superficially make a mendacious reality palatable without taking note of the violence itself? Such shortcoming also manifests itself in his choice of subjects, usually already flamboyant and eloquent. It is no coincidence that his most interesting works in the exhibition are the few exceptions: monochromatic tire tracks in the snow, similar but different from each other; a guard rail made abstract by the speed of the car from which the shot was taken; indefinable carvings on a Milanese sidewalk. The task of this kind of landscape photography (especially when so instinctive and aestheticizing) is to point the finger at what usually goes unnoticed; if the finger is pointed at what I already see (garish facades, fields in bloom, flashy clothes) why do I have to pay attention? Even when contingency makes its entrance into the shots, through people or vehicles that break the usual perfect static landscapes, the recourse to the classic photographic notion of the decisive moment (also with its baggage of theoretical and philosophical problems) is an end in itself. Indeed, the fact that Fontana randomly alternates between specific instants and still scenarios is not a symptom of breadth of meaning but of lack thereof. The essence of the shots changes completely and the photographer seems to not notice it, concentrating only on beautiful color combinations.

Franco Fontana, “Frammento”, 1981, ® Franco Fontana, courtesy the artist and Brescia Musei

The simplicity that typically in art is fruitful synthesis turns out to be just simplicity instead. Franco Fontana’s are images made to be infallibly appreciated, not to be the object of reflection; they are forerunners of a type of photography that has been depopulating on Instagram for years precisely because it is capable of attracting attention and quickly gaining the approval of the most distracted observer. Pure eye candy: nothing wrong with this, although it inevitably diverges from some of the quotes on the walls that demand much more than light and unpretentious enjoyment. «It is much more difficult to do color than black and white». «I like to say that the landscape through me makes the self-portrait». «What we photograph is not what we see, but what we are». While such statements by the photographer may seem hyperbolic, others seem to just not relate to his own work, demonstrating a basic inconsistency between thought and production: «I don’t, however, want to use color complacently, I will never put a red umbrella on a green lawn, it becomes the masturbation of color this». «Shooting is a matter of thought. […] Through his gaze, the photographer makes the invisible visible». But Fontana’s entire practice consists of carving out the visible and the obvious, precisely because they are visible and obvious, ignoring anything beyond aesthetic appearance.

Franco Fontana, “Wilshire Boulevard L.A.”, 1979, ® Franco Fontana, courtesy the artist and Brescia Musei

The difference in relevance and influence between Fontana and the other Italian photographers from the 1970s and 1980s with whom he is often associated is evident today, because while novelty and recognizability may initially captivate, in the long run content matters, and Fontana (even literally) has only form to offer. Luigi Ghirri emerged in the same years and together they encouraged the use of color in photography; even the first book from Ghirri’s Punto e Virgola publishing house was Fontana’s Skyline. But Ghirri founded an articulate and coherent way of seeing, whose influence reverberates today more powerfully than ever. Fontana’s style is strong and recognizable, but it did not take roots: because it is pure surface. No one can adopt it to express an idea, for it is not a language but an exercise in style. Even as far as a comparison of the object-photography is concerned, Fontana has neither the soul and poetry of Luigi Ghirri, whose small images can (and want to) be caught in a glance, like postcards or photos from a family album, speaking to the subconscious way of seeing of all of us before the retina, nor (to cite the other top exponent of landscape photography from those years) the richness of detail of Gabriele Basilico, whose large formats are a joy to behold and whose editorial or digital reproductions weigh heavily on the scenic impact.

Franco Fontana, “Basilicata”, 1975, ® Franco Fontana, courtesy the artist and Brescia Musei

A Franco Fontana exhibition thus has little more to offer than a well-done catalog. Since the photographs have no intrinsic meaning, an exhibition must then speak for them, displaying the contents in a cohesive and attractive way to provide as satisfactory an account of the artist’s output as possible. And in this sense this solo exhibition does an egregious job: it is one of the rare cases in which the exhibition has more character than the works on display, and elevates them to the point of being memorable. The thematic distribution of the works is consistent and intuitive, covering much of the artist’s output and gradually shifting from densely populated human scenarios to abstract natural landscapes. The transitions are manifested through the reflection in space of color contrasts sampled directly from the shots, coloring walls and floors, but also curtains and special metal frames dividing the rooms, demonstrating elegance and attention to detail. So whether it is art or not, and while it does not strictly require a museum space to be experienced, I doubt that Franco Fontana’s work can be presented any better than this.

Luca Avigo

Info:

Franco Fontana. Colore
curated by Studio Fontana
08/03/2024 – 25/08/2024
Museo di Santa Giulia
Via dei Musei, 81 b, 25121 Brescia BS
www.bresciamusei.com

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