- 60
Piero Manzoni
Estimate
700,000 - 900,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Piero Manzoni
- Achrome
- kaolin on canvas
- 70 by 90cm.
- 27 5/8 by 35 3/8 in.
- Executed in 1958.
Provenance
Galerie Diogenes, Berlin
Utz Kampmann, Berlin
Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich (acquired from the above in 1965)
Private Collection, Germany (acquired from the above in 1968)
Thence by descent to the present owner
Utz Kampmann, Berlin
Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich (acquired from the above in 1965)
Private Collection, Germany (acquired from the above in 1968)
Thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited
Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein, 5 Italianer, 1969, no. 20
Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum; Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Das offene Bild, 1992-3, p. 147
Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum; Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Das offene Bild, 1992-3, p. 147
Literature
Freddy Battino and Luca Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni Catalogo Ragionato, Milan 1991, p. 299, no. 449 B, illustrated
Condition
Colour:
The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is warmer in the original.
Condition:
This work is in good condition. Close inspection reveals a few hairline drying cracks mainly towards the base of some of the larger canvas folds, which are inherent to the artist's choice of media, and a very shallow scratch at the centre towards the bottom edge. There are a number of very faint networks of hairline cracks scattered at intervals throughout, some of which have been stabilised. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals further areas of restoration scattered throughout the composition.
"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."
"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."
Catalogue Note
Executed in 1958, Achrome is an archetypal example from Piero Manzoni's eponymous iconic series. The present work boasts a fascinating provenance: Achrome was bought by Utz Kampmann (b.1935) - a distinguished German artist whose work was featured at Documenta 4 - from Galerie Diogenes, a gallery in Berlin that had close associations with ZERO, a group to which Manzoni had strong connections. It was bought by the father of the present owner from Galerie Bischofberger in Zurich, a space that was founded by one of the most influential gallerists of the Twentieth Century, Bruno Bischofberger. However, it is only recently that the family of the current owner have been able to make Achrome known to, and correspondingly recognised by, the Manzoni Foundation in Milan, due to the immensely busy medical career of the owner. Though the work did not appear in Germano Celant’s Catalogue Raisonné as a result, the Manzoni Foundation have since acknowledged the authenticity of Achrome.
Created when the artist was at the apogee of his tragically short career, Achrome perfectly epitomises the essence of Manzoni’s artistic concerns and radical creative ideas at a time of immense cultural and political ferment within Europe. The 1950s saw an almost universal reaction against the horrors of World War II, and the subsequent re-drawing of the political map within Europe - coupled with economic and physical hardships and the mass fear engendered by the development of nuclear capability - led to a corresponding re-evaluation of the cultural zeitgeist alongside a questioning of the very purpose and nature of art itself. It was against this unprecedented background that Manzoni produced his remarkable Achromes; visions of extraordinary beauty and purity within a troubled world.
1958 had been a year of remarkable artistic activity for Manzoni due to his extensive participation with the ZERO artists, a group which featured an extraordinary selection of creative pioneers amongst its affiliates, including Yves Klein, Arman, Lucio Fontana and Enrico Castellani as well as Manzoni. Founded in Düsseldorf in 1958 by Otto Piene, Günther Uecker and Heinz Mack, ZERO sought to annihilate all forms of representation within art in order to celebrate the possibilities inherent in ‘nothingness’: to move beyond the confines of the canvas and so attempt to penetrate the mysterious concept of the fourth dimension. Piene sought to encapsulate the aims of the group in a statement of 1958: "Zero is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new" (Otto Piene, 'Die Entstehung der Gruppe ‘Zero"', The Times Literary Supplement, 3 September 1964).
Despite the commonality of interest with the concerns of the other ZERO artists and his extensive involvement with the group, Manzoni’s discovery of the potential of the Achrome actually anticipated ZERO’s founding. Following on from the publication of his manifesto, Per la scoperta di una zona di immagini, in 1956-7, Manzoni determined on finding a means of expressing the power of the subconscious through the creation of a completely subject-less, non-representational work, emphasising the surface and materials as the true focus of the piece. The Achromes operate in a world beyond abstraction, wholly removed from all extraneous, earthly distractions. Liberated from all chromatic or figurative implications and freed of all allusive and descriptive, allegorical and symbolic input, Manzoni’s unspeaking, colourless constructions express nothing but their very own state of being. The process of creation of the Achromes was simple but extraordinarily effective: Manzoni would commence by soaking the canvas first in plaster, then in kaolin, a form of soft white clay that was primarily used for the making of porcelain and china. The materials were then allowed to dry and assume their final form independently of the artist’s direction, introducing a thrilling degree of unpredictability into the process and infusing the surface of the work with a sense of innate vibrancy and life through its magnificent three-dimensionality. Although Manzoni proceeded to experiment with various different materials (felt and cotton in 1960, wool and rabbit fur in 1961 and gravel and bread rolls in 1962) as a means of investigating the limitations and potential of the painted surface, ultimately it is the kaolin on pleated canvas that embodies at its most effective the artist’s attempt to minimise any sense of his own personality or gesture that might interfere with the crucial purity of the work. Manzoni himself had outlined the aim of ridding his art of external distractions: "The problem lies in freeing oneself from the extraneous details and useless gestures; details and gestures that are polluting the customary art of our day" (the artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, The Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, p.69).
Reminiscent of the folds to be found amongst drapery adorned classical statuary, Achrome’s pleats are simultaneously evocative of chiselled marble whilst seeming to convey a sensation of dynamism, engendered by the undulating, kaolin-induced, ripples. Achrome, provides an added visual stimulus in the contrast between the unmarked purity of the unadulterated canvas to either side of the pleats at the centre, the ripples scoring through the canvas as though bisecting a limitless void. The utter lack of images or objects on which to focus causes the gaze to move beyond the edges of the work, reflecting the ZERO ideal of moving beyond the confines of the canvas ground to exploit the potential of the timeless, unbounded space beyond. Achrome arguably invokes Hegel’s theory, as outlined in Aesthetics (1835), that the ‘end of art’ is nigh: divorced of didactic, political or social comment, the traditional accoutrements of painting have been entirely discarded as an unnecessary distraction from the pure truth of the work itself. Achrome is effectively a blank slate, a tabula rasa on to which the onlooker is able to project their own individual interpretations, meditations and dreams. With his celebration of the monochrome, Manzoni magnificently transcends the formerly accepted traditions of the Western artistic canon to create a work of profound complexity and truly elegiac beauty.
Created when the artist was at the apogee of his tragically short career, Achrome perfectly epitomises the essence of Manzoni’s artistic concerns and radical creative ideas at a time of immense cultural and political ferment within Europe. The 1950s saw an almost universal reaction against the horrors of World War II, and the subsequent re-drawing of the political map within Europe - coupled with economic and physical hardships and the mass fear engendered by the development of nuclear capability - led to a corresponding re-evaluation of the cultural zeitgeist alongside a questioning of the very purpose and nature of art itself. It was against this unprecedented background that Manzoni produced his remarkable Achromes; visions of extraordinary beauty and purity within a troubled world.
1958 had been a year of remarkable artistic activity for Manzoni due to his extensive participation with the ZERO artists, a group which featured an extraordinary selection of creative pioneers amongst its affiliates, including Yves Klein, Arman, Lucio Fontana and Enrico Castellani as well as Manzoni. Founded in Düsseldorf in 1958 by Otto Piene, Günther Uecker and Heinz Mack, ZERO sought to annihilate all forms of representation within art in order to celebrate the possibilities inherent in ‘nothingness’: to move beyond the confines of the canvas and so attempt to penetrate the mysterious concept of the fourth dimension. Piene sought to encapsulate the aims of the group in a statement of 1958: "Zero is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new" (Otto Piene, 'Die Entstehung der Gruppe ‘Zero"', The Times Literary Supplement, 3 September 1964).
Despite the commonality of interest with the concerns of the other ZERO artists and his extensive involvement with the group, Manzoni’s discovery of the potential of the Achrome actually anticipated ZERO’s founding. Following on from the publication of his manifesto, Per la scoperta di una zona di immagini, in 1956-7, Manzoni determined on finding a means of expressing the power of the subconscious through the creation of a completely subject-less, non-representational work, emphasising the surface and materials as the true focus of the piece. The Achromes operate in a world beyond abstraction, wholly removed from all extraneous, earthly distractions. Liberated from all chromatic or figurative implications and freed of all allusive and descriptive, allegorical and symbolic input, Manzoni’s unspeaking, colourless constructions express nothing but their very own state of being. The process of creation of the Achromes was simple but extraordinarily effective: Manzoni would commence by soaking the canvas first in plaster, then in kaolin, a form of soft white clay that was primarily used for the making of porcelain and china. The materials were then allowed to dry and assume their final form independently of the artist’s direction, introducing a thrilling degree of unpredictability into the process and infusing the surface of the work with a sense of innate vibrancy and life through its magnificent three-dimensionality. Although Manzoni proceeded to experiment with various different materials (felt and cotton in 1960, wool and rabbit fur in 1961 and gravel and bread rolls in 1962) as a means of investigating the limitations and potential of the painted surface, ultimately it is the kaolin on pleated canvas that embodies at its most effective the artist’s attempt to minimise any sense of his own personality or gesture that might interfere with the crucial purity of the work. Manzoni himself had outlined the aim of ridding his art of external distractions: "The problem lies in freeing oneself from the extraneous details and useless gestures; details and gestures that are polluting the customary art of our day" (the artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, The Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, p.69).
Reminiscent of the folds to be found amongst drapery adorned classical statuary, Achrome’s pleats are simultaneously evocative of chiselled marble whilst seeming to convey a sensation of dynamism, engendered by the undulating, kaolin-induced, ripples. Achrome, provides an added visual stimulus in the contrast between the unmarked purity of the unadulterated canvas to either side of the pleats at the centre, the ripples scoring through the canvas as though bisecting a limitless void. The utter lack of images or objects on which to focus causes the gaze to move beyond the edges of the work, reflecting the ZERO ideal of moving beyond the confines of the canvas ground to exploit the potential of the timeless, unbounded space beyond. Achrome arguably invokes Hegel’s theory, as outlined in Aesthetics (1835), that the ‘end of art’ is nigh: divorced of didactic, political or social comment, the traditional accoutrements of painting have been entirely discarded as an unnecessary distraction from the pure truth of the work itself. Achrome is effectively a blank slate, a tabula rasa on to which the onlooker is able to project their own individual interpretations, meditations and dreams. With his celebration of the monochrome, Manzoni magnificently transcends the formerly accepted traditions of the Western artistic canon to create a work of profound complexity and truly elegiac beauty.