| Piero Manzoni | |
|---|---|
Piero Manzoni, 1960 |
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| Birth name | Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo |
| Born | July 13, 1933 Soncino Cremona |
| Died | February 6, 1963 (aged 29) Milan |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Field | Artist |
| Movement | Conceptual art |
Piero Manzoni (July 13, 1933 – February 6, 1963) was an Italian artist best known for his ironic conceptual art. Influenced by the work of Yves Klein, his own work anticipated, and directly influenced, the work of a generation of younger Italian artists brought together by the critic Germano Celant in the first Arte Povera exhibition held in Genoa, 1967 [1]. Manzoni is most famous for a series of artworks that call into question the nature of the art object, directly prefiguring 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 'Economic Miracle') after World War II [4].
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Manzoni was born in Soncino, province of Cremona. His full name was Count Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo.[5]
Self taught as an artist, Manzoni first exhibited at the Castello Sforzesco, Soncino, August 1956, aged 23. His early work was broadly gestural, and showed the influence of milanese proponents of Nuclear Art, such as Enrico Baj.[6]
His work changed irrevocably after visiting Yves Klein's exhibition 'Epoca Blu' at the Galleria Apollinaire, January 1957.[7] This exhibition consisted of 11 identical blue monochromes. By the end of the year he had ceased producing work influenced by the prevailing trends in Art Informel, to works that responded directly to Klein's monochromes.[8] Called Achromes, they invariably looked white but were actually colourless. In these paintings Manzoni experimented with various pigments and materials. Initially favouring canvases coated in gesso (1957–1958), he also worked with kaolin, another form of white clay often used in the production of porcelain.[9] 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. As well as Yves Klein, these works showed the influence of Fontana and Burri and the American artist Robert Rauschenberg, who had painted neutral white canvases in 1951.[10] 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.
He founded the Gallery Azimuth, Milan, in 1959 with the artist Enrico Castellani, and proceeded to put on a series of revolutionary exhibitions of multiples. The first, 12 Linee (12 Lines) took place in December 1959, quickly followed by Corpi d'Aria (Bodies of Air) in May 1960.[11] 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 eggs, printed his thumprint onto them, and then handed them out to the audience to eat. This was the last exhibition by Manzoni at Azimuth, after which the gallery was forced to close when the lease ran out.
Contemporaneously with the Bodies of Air, Manzoni produced the Artist's Breaths (Fiato d'Artista), a series of red, white or blue balloons, inflated and attached to a wooden base inscribed "Piero Manzoni- Artist's Breath". The works continued Manzoni's obsession with the limits of physicality, whilst parodying the Art World's obsession with permanence, and also provided a poignant Memento Mori.
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).[12] 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.[13] In the following years, the cans have spread to various art collections all over the world and netted large prices, far outstripping inflation. The most recent can to be auctioned, #19, sold on 26 February 2007 in the USA for $80,000.[14]. 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 [15]
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 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.
Piero Manzoni died of myocardial infarction in his studio in Milan in 1963.