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Lot Essay
Manzoni's Achrome is art without and, more importantly, against style. Executed in 1957-58, this dates from the very beginning of Manzoni's exploration of the Achrome theme, in which he created works that were empty arenas, devoid of artistic intervention, filled only with the potential of their own development. Soaking his canvas in kaolin, a form of clay used in various medical procedures, Manzoni allowed the material to dry with pleats in place, yet these pleats determined their own forms, drying this way or that. In this way, Manzoni's Achrome is an artwork that has created itself. It is therefore a totemic celebration of its own existence, a suitably blank banner for the generation of dropping out and of existentialism.
Manzoni was a great believer in the necessity of art, in the hereditary and even genetic imperative that forced the caveman to etch buffalo into walls and the Etruscans to paint their tombs. But in an increasingly global society, Manzoni sought to channel this imperative, creating an art that could be universal. To do this, he pared away all the details, all the specifiers and specificities, leaving only the canvas and the kaolin. Indeed, its colour, an undefined off-white, had an extra attraction for Manzoni, to whom it appeared as a non-colour, hence the title Achrome. In this way, Manzoni removed himself from the problems and issues of the artistic movements of his day: 'The difficulty lies in freeing oneself from extraneous details and useless gestures; details and gestures that are polluting the customary art of our day and sometimes actually acquire such prominence that they become banners of artistic trends' (Manzoni, Art is not a true creation, Milan 1957, reproduced in G. Celant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., Milan & London 1998, p. 76). Free of details and references, Achrome's emptiness makes it a common denominator, a space in which everyone shares the same experience and reads the same message (or lack of), making it a truly universal and unifying work of art.
Manzoni was a great believer in the necessity of art, in the hereditary and even genetic imperative that forced the caveman to etch buffalo into walls and the Etruscans to paint their tombs. But in an increasingly global society, Manzoni sought to channel this imperative, creating an art that could be universal. To do this, he pared away all the details, all the specifiers and specificities, leaving only the canvas and the kaolin. Indeed, its colour, an undefined off-white, had an extra attraction for Manzoni, to whom it appeared as a non-colour, hence the title Achrome. In this way, Manzoni removed himself from the problems and issues of the artistic movements of his day: 'The difficulty lies in freeing oneself from extraneous details and useless gestures; details and gestures that are polluting the customary art of our day and sometimes actually acquire such prominence that they become banners of artistic trends' (Manzoni, Art is not a true creation, Milan 1957, reproduced in G. Celant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., Milan & London 1998, p. 76). Free of details and references, Achrome's emptiness makes it a common denominator, a space in which everyone shares the same experience and reads the same message (or lack of), making it a truly universal and unifying work of art.