Catalogue for the major retrospective of this breakthrough Italian artist.

The self-proclaimed "City of Innovation" has a great tradition of reinventing itself. Today's Fontana was once known as "Rancho de San Bernardino." The first recorded owner, Don Antonia Maria Lugo, passed the land down to his sons, and in 1851, the Lugo brothers sold their stake to Mormon settlers, who soon relocated to Utah. Various agricultural developers, including A.B. Miller, saw potential in the land, changing its name to "Fontana" from its earlier railroad name "Rosena." But citrus and grain were not the main exports for long. During World War II, the city switched gears to become an industrial powerhouse as Southern California's leading steel producer. At the junction of Interstates 10 and 15, modern Fontana is a vital nexus of transportation and commerce, with the legendary Route 66 passing through its well-preserved downtown district and Route 99 through its southern boundary.

In 1961, a solo exhibition by Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana met with a scathing critical response from New York art critics. Fontana (1899--1968), well known in Europe for his series of slashed monochrome paintings, offered New York ten canvases slashed and punctured, thickly painted in luridly brilliant hues and embellished with chunks of colored glass. One critic described the work as "halfway between constructivism and costume jewelry," unwittingly putting his finger on the contradiction at the heart of these paintings and much of Fontana's work: the cut canvases suggest avant-garde iconoclasm, but the glittery ornamentation evokes outmoded forms of kitsch. In Lucio Fontana, Anthony White examines a selection of the artist's work from the 1930s to the 1960s, arguing that Fontana attacked the idealism of twentieth-century art by marrying modernist aesthetics to industrialized mass culture, and attacked modernism's purity in a way that anticipated both pop art and postmodernism. Fontana painted expressionist and abstract sculptures in the pinks and golds of mass-produced knick-knacks, saturated architectural installations with fluorescent paint and ultraviolet light, and encrusted candy-colored monochrome canvases with glitter. In doing so, White argues, he challenged Clement Greenberg's dictum that avant-garde and kitsch are diametrically opposed. Relating Fontana's art to the political and social context in which he worked, White shows how Fontana used the materials and techniques of mass culture to comment on the fate of the avant-garde under Italian fascism and the postwar "economic miracle." At a time when Fontana's work is commanding record prices, this new interpretation of the work assures that it has unprecedented critical relevance.

Handsome and charmingly shy, Ricky Fontana may be the greatest ballplayer who ever lived. Hitting a baseball has always come easy for the New York Mets outfielderÑhis true challenge comes when skyrocketing fame threatens to reveal his deepest secret: Ricky Fontana is gay. Jeremy RuschÑa tabloid sportswriter hardened by drink and disappointmentÑfollows Ricky Fontana as the young champ aims to break one of baseball's most treasured records: the 56-game hitting streak that immortalized Joe DiMaggio in 1941. As a rapt nation watches Fontana lash hit after hit, creeping toward DiMaggio's impossible number, the idol of the sports pages becomes an American hero. From the White House to Hollywood, everyone wants to shake hands with Ricky Fontana. And it doesn't take long for his carefully guarded secret to come to lightÑthanks to a front-page exposŽ by Jeremy Rusch. When he discovers Ricky's secret, Rusch envisions recognition to rival that of his idol. The reporter's obsession creates a national furor, turning one baseball summer into a season that nobody can ignore.