About the Artist

Marcello Fantoni (1915-2011) was an Italian sculptor, ceramicist, metalworker, multi-media artist and designer.


Born in Florence in 1915, Fantoni began studying ceramic art at age 12 in 1927 at the Porta Romana Art Institute in Florence with ceramicist Carlo Guerrini, artistic director of the famed Cantagalli Factory. At the same time, he took sculpture lessons from Libero Andreotti and Bruno Innocenti and drawing lessons from Gianni Vagnetti.

In 1934, Fantoni graduated as an "Art Master" from the institute, and then served a short stint as art director for a ceramics factory in Perugia. In 1936, inside the stables of Villa Fabbricotti (unfortunately completely destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War), Fantoni started his Fantoni Ceramics Factory.There he produced ceramic series as well as unique pieces, sculptures and furnishings. Exhibiting at the Artigianato exhibition in Florence in 1937, his production established itself in line with the most current trends and garnered considerable acclaim. By the start of World War II Fantoni’s melding of ancient Italian pottery techniques with decidedly Modernist elements had won him artistic and commercial success both in Italy and abroad.

After the war years (when Fantoni was involved in the resistance) he began the creative and productive fervor that allowed him to expand his studio. Between the end of the 1940s and the end of the 1950s, the company reached a staff of more than fifty collaborators, including turners and decorators. Among his employees were many students who would become excellent artisans and famous artists in their own right.

He experimented with various materials and formal ideas, drawing from varied influences – Primitivism, Novecento style, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Fantoni gave special emphasis to ancient Etruscan ceramic techniques, glazes and colors, heightening the timeless appeal of his pieces. As well as clay, he also worked in metals to great effect.

Whether created as a series or as a unique piece, every Fantoni piece was ultimately rendered unique by his hand-painting it. The extraordinary diversity of shapes and textures notwithstanding, one the most identifiable qualities of his creations was his painting style. Through the 50s and 60s he made many cubist-inspired pieces painted in colors bordered by sgraffito lines scratched through the paint, in a manner evoking Picasso and Braque. Along with figurative and abstract works, the 60s also saw Fantoni creating brutalist pieces with edgy, angular shapes. In later life, his work took a minimalist turn.


In 1970 Fantoni founded the International School of Ceramic Art, dedicated to teaching ceramic arts and experimentation, where he continued to work and teach until his death.

Maintaining great versatility throughout his career, Fantoni completed projects for public and private buildings, churches, schools, theaters, cinemas, and ships.

Marcello Fantoni died in Florence in 2011 at the age of 95.

His work is in several private collections and in numerous major museums. In the United States, his work is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, in New Hampshire in Manchester at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, and the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, among others. In the United Kingdom, his work is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Art City Gallery in Manchester, and the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. His work is also in Japan at the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto (MoMAK) and the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. In Italy, his work is at the Museo Internazionale della Ceramica in Faenza (M.I.C.), the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi.


Biographical sources include ceramichefantoni.it, archiviyo, donzella


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