Piero Manzoni

Estate of the artist
Manzoni Family Collection, Milan (by descent)
Sotheby's, London, 25 March 1998, Lot 24
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Milan, Galleria Azimuth, Piero Manzoni, 1960
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Piero Manzoni, 1971, n.p., no. 39, illustrated
Paris, Museé d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Herning, Herning Kunstmuseum; Madrid, Fundación La Caixa, Piero Manzoni, March - December 1991, p. 126, no. 56, illustrated
Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Piero Manzoni, 1992, p. 220, no. 56, illustrated
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piero Manzoni - Milano et Mitologia, 1997, p. 70, no. 37, illustrated
São Paulo, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, XXIV Bienal de São Paulo: Núcleo Histórico: Antropofagia e Historias de Canibalismos, October - December 1998
Texas, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Dynamic Oppositions: Venezuelan Abstract-Constructive Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, January 1999 - December 2001
Prague, National Gallery Veletrzni Palac; Buenos Aires, Centro Cultural Recoleta; São Paulo, Museu de Arte Brasileira; Rio de Janeiro, Paço Imperial, California, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Beyond Preconceptions: The Sixties Experiment, November 2000 - January 2002

Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo Generale, Milan 1975, p. 191, no. 13 tcq, illustrated
Freddy Battino and Luca Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni Catalogue Raisonné, Milan 1991, p. 359, no. 674 BM, illustrated
Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo Generale, Tomo Secondo, Milan 2004, p. 492, no. 644, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: Condition: Please refer to the professional condition report attached or contact the Contemporary Department.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"What we have here is, above all, the primacy of the material itself, exhibiting its own laws as a pure signifier… The result is an entity that spans the threshold between object and subject and ultimately finds itself alone, so that both conditions can exist simultaneously, poised in mutual solitude and independence" Germano Celant ‘Manzoni and His Times’, in: Exh. Cat., New York, Gagosian Gallery, Piero Manzoni A Retrospective, 2009, p. 30.

“Living with the yearning for the infinite, which one cannot reach.” (Piero Manzoni, Diario, edited by Gaspare Luigi Marcone, Milan 2013, p. 165). This statement is perfectly encapsulated by Piero  Manzoni in his most celebrated series, the Achromes; masterpieces of purity and elegance that form the crux of Manzoni’s artistic output. The present work, dating from 1959, represents the zenith of Manzoni’s tragically short career and is an exemplary work from his Achrome series. Prior to its creation Manzoni participated in a group show that demonstrated the generational bridge from Lucio Fontana to Enrico Baj through to Manzoni, held in Bologna in 1958. In this exhibition Manzoni exhibited some works that were at the time known only as ‘white works’. The following year, on the occasion of his solo show in Milan, Manzoni renamed his white works Superficie Acroma (Achrome Surface) and from this moment onwards, these works would be known as Achromes.

Initially conceived in 1957, the Achrome series was described by Manzoni as a totally colourless canvas onto which no existentialist doubts, political nor personal questions were represented. The pure white of the canvas was used to embody an art of continuity rather than an art of absence. Echoing the artistic practices of many of his contemporaries, Manzoni sought to create an autonomous work of art, devoid of figuration and literal representation. He began this pursuit with an attempt to reduce the interaction between the artist and the work, by soaking his canvases in kaolin and leaving them out to dry in the sun. The process allowed the fabric and the substance to combine, resulting in a composition untouched by the artist’s hands and further affirming Manzoni’s artistic concerns that the being is inherent in the work and that the work is a living, dynamic and infinite essence.

By 1959 Manzoni’s practice had further developed and he began to experiment with other variations on the Achrome. Initially these were made in sewn canvas like the current lot, however, later Manzoni would go on to experiment with a plethora of different materials; including straw, polystyrene, bread rolls, gravel, felt and wool. The expansion of the Achrome into different forms and mediums developed a concept of the ‘infinite’ that Manzoni was attempting to convey and it was at this point in time that Manzoni’s oeuvre began to fully mature. In 1960 he wrote, “The artist has achieved integral freedom; pure material becomes pure energy; all problems of artistic criticism are surmounted; everything is permitted” (Piero Manzoni, ‘Free Dimension’, Op. Cit.).

In tune with the artistic movements that took place in Italy as well as in other countries around the world, Manzoni interiorized the lessons of his forefathers as well as utterly breaking with the aesthetic concepts of contemporary art that had come before. He drew upon concepts of monochromatic painting, the autonomous artwork and the manipulation of the canvas itself that were being explored by many of his contemporaries, such as Fontana, Enrico Castellani, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. For Manzoni the canvas was an area of freedom, where each person could discover the absolute present. The current lot, with its delicately proportioned grid, places the viewer in front of a pure example of beauty through its precise, harmonious surface. As the curator Jon Thompson elucidated, “the Achrome are material tautologies; they refer only to themselves as reiterations of their own composition” (Jon Thompson, “Piero Manzoni: Out of Time and Place” in Exh. Cat., London, Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, p. 43).