PIERO MANZONI | Achrome

Galleria Lovetti, Ferrara
Private Collection, Italy
Sotheby's, London, 13 February 2013, Lot 150
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 2004, p. 571, no. cas 27, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly warmer in the original and it fails to fully convey the texture of the cotton wool. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is some slight discolouration to the cotton wool in places, most notably to the extreme edges and a spot towards the edge of the bottom right quadrant, which is visible in the catalogue illustration.
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Piero Manzoni’s Achrome, executed in 1962, is a powerful piece from the artist’s most celebrated series. Featuring twelve off-white cotton-wool squares, compactly assembled in sequences of three, a geometrical block is formed that elegantly conjures both an impression of sculptural solidness and of material weightlessness. In 1957, Manzoni began working on his first Achromes, an impressive body of works made of cotton wool, fiberglass, animal pelts, and even comestible products, all free from the constraints of traditional artistic elements such as colour, form, and narrative. Indeed, the experimental works were produced with the intention of rejecting imagery and embracing pure and immaculate abstract surfaces. The artist’s desire was to redirect viewer’s interest towards the materiality and the self-sufficiency of the surface of his works. Along with this endeavour, he wanted to reduce his own intervention to an absolute minimum in order to best explore each artwork’s material potential. In the words of art historian 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 Achromes represent no hue, no chromatic memory at all. Nothing that might recall the nature of the artist’s own passion” (Germano Celant cited in: Exh. Cat., London, Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, p. 22).

Early examples of Manzoni’s Achromes are composed of coarse, uneven, scratched gessom while later works consist of cut, creased, and folded pieces of canvas. The present work, constituted of twelve strategically positioned cotton-wool cubes, allowed the artist to further his investigations with the power imbued in pure materiality. Indeed, the cotton-wool cubes are charged with an imperceptible tension due to their porous and permeable character as well as their endless ability to be remodelled individually and restructured collectively. Their texture, shape, and hue are the very subject of the work and allow its self-generating potential. In other words, Achrome is a remarkable example of the way that Manzoni’s interest in materiality led him to achieve integral artistic freedom. As stated by the artist himself: “pure material becomes pure energy; all problems of artistic criticism are surmounted; everything is permitted” (Piero Manzoni, 'Free Dimension', Azimuth, No. 2, 1960, n.p.).



This work is registered in the Archivio Manzoni under number 1275/02.