Piero Manzoni

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Piero Manzoni
Manzoni in 1960
Born
Piero Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo

(1933-07-13)July 13, 1933
Soncino, Kingdom of Italy
DiedFebruary 6, 1963(1963-02-06) (aged 29)
Milan, Italy
NationalityItalian
Known forArtist
Notable workArtist's Shit
MovementConceptual art

Piero Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo, better known as Piero Manzoni (July 13, 1933 – February 6, 1963) was an Italian artist best known for his ironic approach to avant-garde art. Often compared to the work of

Conceptual Art.[2][3] His work eschews normal artist's materials, instead using everything from rabbit fur to human excrement in order to "tap mythological sources and to realize authentic and universal values".[2]

His work is widely seen as a critique of the mass production and consumerism that was changing Italian society (the Italian economic miracle) after World War II.[4] Italian artists such as Manzoni had to negotiate the new economic and material order of post-war Europe through inventive artistic practices which crossed geographic, artistic, and cultural borders.

Manzoni died of myocardial infarction in his studio in Milan on February 6, 1963. His contemporary Ben Vautier signed Manzoni's death certificate, declaring it a work of art.[5]

Biography

Manzoni was born in

Soncino, province of Cremona. His full name was Count Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo.[6]

Self-taught as an artist, Manzoni first exhibited at the Soncino's Castle in Soncino in August 1956, at the age of 23. His early work was broadly gestural, and showed the influence of Milanese proponents of Nuclear Art, such as Enrico Baj.[7] His later works, from approximately 1957 until his death in 1963, questioned and satirized the status of the art object as it had been conceived throughout modernism. Influences include earlier (though still active) artists like Marcel Duchamp and contemporaneous practitioners Ben Vautier and Yves Klein.[5]

Achromes

Achrome, 1961-62.

Manzoni's work changed irrevocably after visiting

kaolin, another form of white clay often used in the production of porcelain.[10] The kaolin works are generally made from clay covered canvases folded horizontally, or sometimes cut-out squares of canvas coated in the clay and adhered onto the canvas; he created just nine large-scale relief paintings depicting folded cloth.[11] As well as Yves Klein, these works showed the influence of Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri and the American artist Robert Rauschenberg, who had painted neutral white canvases in 1951.[12] Later he would create Achromes from white cotton wool, fiberglass, rabbit skin and bread rolls. He also experimented with phosphorescent paint and cobalt chloride
so that the colours would change over time.

Azimut Gallery

Manzoni founded the

Corpi d'Aria (Bodies of Air) in May 1960.[13] This was an edition of 45 balloons on tripods that could be blown up by the buyer, or the artist himself, depending on the price paid. In July 1960 he exhibited Consumption of Art by the Art-Devouring Public, in which he hard-boiled 70 eggs, printed his thumbprint onto them, and after eating several himself handed them out to the audience to eat. The eggs themselves were titled Uova con impronta (Egg With Thumbprint). This was the last exhibition by Manzoni at Azimuth, after which the gallery was forced to close when the lease ran out. Although the invitation named the Gallery Azimuth as the location of the opening, the actual event took place at the Studio Filmgiornale Sedi in Milan. The discrepancy between the location on the invitation and the film studio where the event was recorded further complicates the role and space of art as it was expected to be seen.[5]

Artist's Breath, 1960.

Artist's Breath

Contemporaneously with the

Memento Mori
.

Artist's Shit

In May 1961 Manzoni created 90 small cans, sealed with the text Artist's Shit (Merda d'Artista). Each 30-gram can was priced by weight based on the current value of gold (around $1.12 a gram in 1960).[14] The contents of the cans remain a much-disputed enigma, since opening them would destroy the value of the artwork. Various theories about the contents have been proposed, including speculation that it is plaster.[15] In the following years, the cans have spread to various art collections all over the world and netted large prices, far outstripping inflation. A tin was sold for

£ 50–70,000. It sold for £97,250.[16]
It was described as:

"It is a joke, a parody of the art market, and a critique of consumerism and the waste it generates."

— Stephen Bury [17]

On October 16, 2015, tin 54 was sold at Christies for the astonishing sum of £182,500. The tins were originally to be valued according to their equivalent weight in gold – $37 each in 1961 – with the price fluctuating according to the market.

Other works from this period include limited edition thumbprints, and the Declarations of Authenticity, 1961-61, a printed multiple that could be bought, proving the owner's status as either part or whole work of art, depending on the price paid. He also designated a number of people, including Umberto Eco, as authentic works of art gratis. Various other experimental pieces by Manzoni included trying to create a mechanical animal as a moving sculpture and using solar energy as a power source. In 1960 he created a sphere that was held aloft on a jet of air.

Other works

  • Magic Bases (Magisk Sockkel, 1961), a series of wooden
    plinths
    that could be stood on to acquire status of 'Living Sculpture'.
  • Lines of Exceptional Length (1960–61). Lines drawn on paper, the longest of which was 7.2 km, intended to be left in every major city in the world, which would equal the length of the equator when joined.
  • Base of the World (Socle du Monde, 1961). A large metal plinth, inscribed 'The Base Of The World, Homage To Galileo' placed upside down in a field in
    Herning, Denmark
    . It announces that the whole world is a work of art, rendering the artist obsolete.
  • Piero Manzoni; The Life And Works (1963), published posthumously by Jes Petersen. An artist's book consisting of 100 sheets of transparent plastic bound to a white metal sheet. The only text is the title page. The rest of the book is totally blank.

Exhibitions

Manzoni's works were often featured at Galleria Azimuth.

Serpentine Gallery, London (1998), at the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples (2007), curated by Germano Celant, and in 2019 "Piero Manzoni: Materials of His Time" at Hauser & Wirth's Los Angeles and then New York City galleries.[19][20]

Collections

Manzoni's work is represented in many public collections, including the

Museum of Contemporary Art Villa Croce
in Genoa.

Legacy

Fondazione Piero Manzoni, a family-run Italian foundation, oversees the artist’s estate. It has been represented by Hauser & Wirth since 2017.[21]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Grove Art Online, Arte Povera,
  2. ^ a b Grove Art Online, Piero Manzoni, essay by Laural Weintraub,
  3. ^ Tate Online
  4. ^ Art Invest/Manzoni biography
  5. ^ a b c Silk, Gerald. Myths and Meanings in Manzoni's Merda d'artista, Art Journal, Vol. 52, No. 3, Autumn, 1993
  6. ^ Piero Manzoni, Catalog Raisoné, Battino & Palazzoli, p162
  7. ^ Manzoni, Celant, Electa, p22
  8. ^ Yves Klein, Sidra Stich, Hayward Gallery, p82
  9. ^ Piero Manzoni, Catalog Generale, First Vol, Celant
  10. ^ Piero Manzoni, Germano Celant, p 262
  11. New York Times
    .
  12. ^ Rauschenberg/ Art and Life, Kotz, Abrams p76
  13. ^ Manzoni, Celant, Electa 2007, p207
  14. ISBN 1-932595-21-X
  15. ^ Glancey, Jonathan (2007-06-13). "Merde d'artiste: not exactly what it says on the tin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  16. ^ Catalogue item from Sotheby's 20th Century Italian Art sale, 20 October 2008
  17. ^ Artist's Multiples 1935-2000, Stephen Bury, Ashgate
  18. ^ Piero Manzoni Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  19. ^ a b Piero Manzoni Gagosian Gallery.
  20. ^ "Exhibitions — Piero Manzoni Materials of His Time - Piero Manzoni | Hauser & Wirth".
  21. ^ Alex Greenberger (June 8, 2017), Foundation for Piero Manzoni Goes to Hauser & Wirth ARTnews.

Bibliography

- Piero Manzoni. Catalogo Generale, edited by G. Celant, Prearo Editore, Milan, 1975.

- Piero Manzoni. Catalogue raisonné, edited by F. Battino, L. Palazzoli, Edizioni di Vanni Scheiwiller, Milan, 1991.

- Piero Manzoni. General catalogue, edited by G. Celant, interview of G. Celant, Skira, Geneva-Milan, 2004.

- Piero Manzoni, edited by G. Celant, exhibition catalogue (MADRE Museo di Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naple), Electa, Milan, 2007.

- Piero Manzoni: Azimut, exhibition catalogue (Gagosian Gallery, London), Gagosian Gallery, 2011.

- P. Manzoni, Diario, edited by G. L. Marcone, Mondadori Electa, Milan, 2013.

- F. Pola, Una visione internazionale. Piero Manzoni e Albisola, Mondadori Electa, Milan, 2013.

- G. Celant, Su Piero Manzoni, Abscondita, Milan, 2014. - F. Gualdoni, Breve storia della “Merda d’artista”, Skira, Geneva-Milan, 2014.

- E. Manzoni, Caro Piero, Skira, Geneva-Milan, 2014.

- F. Pola, Piero Manzoni and ZERO. A European Creative Region, Mondadori Electa, Milan, 2014.

- A. Bettinetti, Piero Manzoni, Artist, Cinehollywood, 2014 (DVD). - Piero Manzoni 1933-1963, edited by F. Gualdoni and R. Pasqualino di Marineo, exhibition catalogue, (Palazzo Reale, Milan), Skira, Geneva-Milan, 2014.

- G. Pautasso, Piero Manzoni. Divorare l’arte, Mondadori Electa, Milan, 2015.

- AZIMUT/H. Continuity and Newness, edited by L. Barbero, exhibition catalogue (Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice), Marsilio Editori, Venice, 2015.

- Piero Manzoni, Achrome, edited by C. Léveque-Claudet and C. Kazarian, exhibition catalogue (Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, Lausanne), Editions Hazan, Lausanne, 2016.

- Piero Manzoni. Nuovi studi, edited by R. Pasqualino di Marineo, Carlo Cambi Editore, Poggibonsi, 2017.

- R. Perna, Piero Manzoni e Roma, Mondadori Electa, Milan, 2017.

- Piero Manzoni. Materials of His Time and Lines, edited by R. Pasqualino di Marineo, exhibition catalogue (Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles and New York), Hauser & Wirth Publishers, Zürich, 2019.

- F. Gualdoni, Piero Manzoni. An Artist's Life, Gagosian, New York, 2019.

- P. Manzoni, Piero Manzoni. Writings on Art, edited by G. L. Marcone, Hauser & Wirth Publishers, Zürich, 2019.

- Merda d’artista Künstlerscheisse Merde d’artiste Artist's Shit, Carlo Cambi Editore, Poggibonsi, 2021.

External links

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