Piero Manzoni

Collection of the family of the artist, Milan
Private Collection, Milan
Acquired from the above by the present owner in the mid 1980s

Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Piero Manzoni, 1971, p. 13, no. 13, illustrated
London, Tate Gallery, Piero Manzoni. Paintings, Reliefs & Objects, 1974, p. 93, no. 11
Rome, Primo Piano Galleria d'Arte; Milan, Studio Luca Palazzoli, Azimuth. Mostra documentaria, 1974-75, illustrated

Giuseppe Franzoso, Antonio Calderara, Piero Manzoni. Opere dal 1957 al 1963, Vigevano 1974, illustrated
Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni. Catalogo Generale, Milan 1975, p. 108, no. 5 cq, illustrated
Freddy Battino, Luca Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni. Catalogue raisonné, Milan 1991, p. 326, no. 561, illustrated
Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni. Catalogo generale, Milan 2004,  vol. II, p. 459, no. 441, vol. I, p. 110, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals very small areas of hairline stable cracks to the folding of the canvas, which are inherent to the artist's working method. No restoration is evident under ultra-violet light.
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'Abstractions and references must be totally avoided. In our freedom of invention we must succeed in constructing a world that can be measured only in its own terms.' (Piero Manzoni, 'For the Discovery of a Zone of Images', c.1957, in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Tate Gallery, Piero Manzoni: Paintings, Reliefs and Objects, 1974, p. 17).

The ultimate expression of Piero Manzoni's central philosophy, Achrome circa 1959, epitomizes the very height of Manzoni's theoretical and technical quest to liberate painting and achieve absolute autonomy for the artwork.  As outlined by Germano Celant, "Manzoni's Achrome aspired to cut the umbilical cord between artefact and artificier; it aimed at reducing art's dependency on the artist... the Achrome represent no hue, no chromatic memory at all, nothing that might recall nature or the artist's own passion." (Germano Celant in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, p. 22). Belonging to this legendary eponymous corpus of work initiated only two years previously in 1956 and continuing until Manzoni's untimely death in 1963, the present work stands as one of the earliest of the Achrome in which the revolutionary medium of kaolin was first employed.  Included in one of the earliest retrospectives for Manzoni, held shortly after his death in 1963, this work confronts the viewer with a vibrant and dynamic surface of incandescent modulations from light to shadow, the soft folds of which express a self-sufficient energy wholly estranged from the subjectivity of the artist.   

Piero Manzoni sought to define a rational and analytical method with which to approach both the limitations and the possibilities of the painted surface. The artist's theoretical and technical quest was to overcome the still dominant Abstract Expressionist tenets of painting as an arena in which to relay the artist's feelings and emotions, instead looking to liberate the surface of painting from the artist's hand and allow it to speak freely.  Manzoni asked: "Why shouldn't this receptacle be emptied? Why shouldn't this surface be freed? Why not seek to discover the unlimited meaning of total space, or pure and absolute light?" (the artist in:  'Free Dimension', Azimuth no. 2, Milan, 1960, n.p.). Manzoni's response to his own questioning was the Achrome; a mute surface devoid of narrative, description, symbolism and allegory, these works stand alone as an entirely elemental entity, signifying nothing but their own existence. 

The quest for 'freedom' from narrative content was an agenda shared by a number of Manzoni's contemporaries, in fact the Achrome was almost certainly stimulated by the work of Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri, and not least the Monochromes of Yves Klein whose first show in Italy at the Galleria Apollinaire in 1957 made a deep impression on the artist. However Manzoni's strategy was utterly distinctive. Rather than apply paint to the canvas' surface, he focussed on the material of the surface itself, allowing it to change in manifestation apparently of its own accord.  Throughout the series of Achromes, Manzoni took a detached empirical stance, carrying out trials into how different materials could transform our understanding of painting and challenge the physical constraints of colour, canvas, and horizontal/vertical surface.  Manzoni continued to experiment with different materials for the Achrome throughout the early 1960s, including substances as disparate as bread rolls, rabbit fur, gravel and wool. However, it is kaolin which most effectively expresses his aim – to eradicate any sense of personality or gesture.  As evident in the present work, Manzoni would steep his canvases in liquid kaolin, a soft china clay used in making porcelain, to achieve an end product singularly dictated by the drying properties unique to the material.   Seemingly white, the kaolin functions in removing colour whilst adding weight, imbuing these works with a certain sense of monumentality, akin to marble statuary.  Nonetheless if this work is a monument, it is testament only to the insularity of art itself, a purely visual language of resplendent luminous materiality.

The magnificently rich and chromatically homogenous surface evokes the powdery fragility of plaster as well as the cold solidity of marble. The absorption and reflection of natural light by the kaolin folds, accentuated by their angular striated ridges, evoke the tactile creases of sculpted Renaissance drapery, while the intricate surface complexity creates dramatic chiaroscuro to seduce our eye, as dark and light are strikingly juxtaposed. During a tragically brief life cut short at the age of thirty, Manzoni's prescient innovations anticipated both Conceptualism and Arte Povera, while his artistic legacy, emblematised by iconic works such as the present Achrome, became hugely influential to an array of international art trends throughout the second half of the Twentieth Century.