The artist Corsin Fontana (*1944) has shown his works in numerous solo exhibitions and has taken part in exhibitions in national and international institutions since 1968. Fontana grew up in Domat/Ems, lived in Basel for many years and today commutes between Basel and Graubünden.

After Corsin Fontana’s retrospective 2009 at the Art Museum Graubünden, the present exhibition focuses on works done during the past ten years and integrates some earlier works and work groups that have not previously been shown. From the beginning Corsin Fontana chose the path of simplification and reduction, worked with “poor” materials, included natural processes in his work and increasingly concentrated on a design vocabulary beyond any figurativeness. Lines, grids and rasters became the supporting image elements; but in their material realisation in oil pastel these show lively structures full of sensuality

Goal and aspiration of the exhibition is to show Corsin Fontana’s artistic creativity in its large scope but at the same time to explore other correlations and to open new viewpoints. In particular therefore the integration of Corsin Fontana’s large collection of North African music in the exhibition and in the catalogue sets a surprising focus. Suddenly such categories become meaningful, which as yet were not paramount: Light and shadow, surface and space, revelation and concealment, visibility and invisibleness, sequence and variation, rhythm and dynamics. And the radical simplification of his design vocabulary is no longer only related to lines of development of western painting but enters in dialogue with other forms of art and cultures.

A catalogue accompanies the exhibition published by Scheidegger & Spiess with 80 illustrations of Corsin Fontana’s new works in juxtaposition with music cassettes from his collection as well as a text by Stephan Kunz in German and Arabic.