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Lot Essay
"Free Dimension. The emergence of new conditions and the appearance of new problems bring with them new methods and new terms of measurement, plus a need for new solutions. You can't take off from the ground simply by running and jumping: you need wings. Modification alone is not sufficient: the transformation must be integral.
It is for this reason that I am quite unable to understand those painters who, whilst declaring an active interest in modern problems, still continue even today to confront a painting as if it was a surface to be filled with colour and forms according to an aesthetic taste which can be more or less appreciated, more or less guessed at. They paint a line in, step back, look at their work with head on one side and half-closed eye, then jump forward again and add another line or colour; and these gymnastics continue until the painting is filled in and the canvas is covered: the painting is finished: a surface of unlimited possibilities is now reduced to a kind of receptacle into which unnatural colours and artificial meanings are forced. Why shouldn't this receptacle be emptied? Why shouldn't this surface be freed? Why not seek to discover the unlimited meaning of total space, of pure and absolute light?" (Manzoni quoted in G. Celant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., London, Serpentine Gallery, 1998, p. 130).
It is for this reason that I am quite unable to understand those painters who, whilst declaring an active interest in modern problems, still continue even today to confront a painting as if it was a surface to be filled with colour and forms according to an aesthetic taste which can be more or less appreciated, more or less guessed at. They paint a line in, step back, look at their work with head on one side and half-closed eye, then jump forward again and add another line or colour; and these gymnastics continue until the painting is filled in and the canvas is covered: the painting is finished: a surface of unlimited possibilities is now reduced to a kind of receptacle into which unnatural colours and artificial meanings are forced. Why shouldn't this receptacle be emptied? Why shouldn't this surface be freed? Why not seek to discover the unlimited meaning of total space, of pure and absolute light?" (Manzoni quoted in G. Celant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., London, Serpentine Gallery, 1998, p. 130).