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Lot Essay
Executed in the late 1950s, Manzoni's Achrome is a perfect example of the extent to which the Achromes both were and were not Manzoni's. Indeed, they are anyone's, they are universal, they are the art of the world. The inset canvas squares on the surface, which were each coated in kaolin, were arranged by Manzoni in only the most general sense, and were then left to dry. The contractions of the kaolin as it dried made the different squares shift and move, allowing the pictorial surface of the Achrome to form itself. Manzoni has deliberately stood back from the creation of this work of art.
This distance between the artist and the Achrome allowed Manzoni to bring into being an artwork that is truly universal, something that is the product of the world and the age in a very specific sense. Through the Achrome's lack of signifiers, of any symbols or even colours, Manzoni has pared back the entire concept of a picture, reducing it to the simplest, barest, lowest common denominator. This removal of any specifics means that Achrome is truly universal. To Manzoni, this was his solution to the great Gordian Knot of art: 'The kind of art criticism that is swamped in terms like 'composition' and 'form' has no value: in total space form, colour and dimensions have no meaning. The artist has achieved integral freedom: pure material becomes pure energy. The obstacles of space and slavery to subjective weaknesses are annihilated: all the problems of art criticism are overcome' (Piero Manzoni, quoted in G. Celant, exh. cat., Piero Manzoni, Milan & London, 1998, p. 28).
This distance between the artist and the Achrome allowed Manzoni to bring into being an artwork that is truly universal, something that is the product of the world and the age in a very specific sense. Through the Achrome's lack of signifiers, of any symbols or even colours, Manzoni has pared back the entire concept of a picture, reducing it to the simplest, barest, lowest common denominator. This removal of any specifics means that Achrome is truly universal. To Manzoni, this was his solution to the great Gordian Knot of art: 'The kind of art criticism that is swamped in terms like 'composition' and 'form' has no value: in total space form, colour and dimensions have no meaning. The artist has achieved integral freedom: pure material becomes pure energy. The obstacles of space and slavery to subjective weaknesses are annihilated: all the problems of art criticism are overcome' (Piero Manzoni, quoted in G. Celant, exh. cat., Piero Manzoni, Milan & London, 1998, p. 28).