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Lot Essay
Achrome dates from 1959-60. During this period, Manzoni was pushing his Achromes further into the territory of the tabula rasa. In this work, the kaolin has not been permitted to shape the canvas as had formerly been the case in the pleated works or those with shifting soaked squares. Manzoni has repressed and reduced even this element, creating something that approaches the non-specific, ultra-universal lowest common denominator of art, a fundamental space of infinite potential. Manzoni has pared back content and meaning to reach an elemental level, and in this way presents the viewer with a canvas which, in its sewn inscrutability, is a realm of infinite possibility, tapping into the existentialism prevalent during this period. 'Art is not true creation and foundation except insofar as it creates and founds where mythologies have their ultimate foundation and their origin: on the basis of the archetype,' Manzoni explained.
'In order to assimilate the meaning of one's own time one must reach individual mythology at the point where it coincides with universal mythology. The difficulty lies in casting off the extraneous facts and pointless gestures that contaminate the usual art of our time, and that indeed are sometimes emphasized to such a degree that they become emblematic of artistic modes.
[...]
'The space or surface of the panting concerns the self-analytical process only insofar as it is space of freedom in which we set out on our discovery like occasional presences of seeds around which and on which we are organically constituted. Here the image loses form in its vital function: it is no longer valid for what it recalls, explains or expresses (it is more a question of what it founds), and it neither requires nor is able to be explained as an allegory of a physical process: it is valid only insofar as it is: being' (Manzoni, Prolegomena for an Artistic Activity, Milan, 1957, reproduced in G. Celant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., Milan & London, 1998, pp. 68-70).
'In order to assimilate the meaning of one's own time one must reach individual mythology at the point where it coincides with universal mythology. The difficulty lies in casting off the extraneous facts and pointless gestures that contaminate the usual art of our time, and that indeed are sometimes emphasized to such a degree that they become emblematic of artistic modes.
[...]
'The space or surface of the panting concerns the self-analytical process only insofar as it is space of freedom in which we set out on our discovery like occasional presences of seeds around which and on which we are organically constituted. Here the image loses form in its vital function: it is no longer valid for what it recalls, explains or expresses (it is more a question of what it founds), and it neither requires nor is able to be explained as an allegory of a physical process: it is valid only insofar as it is: being' (Manzoni, Prolegomena for an Artistic Activity, Milan, 1957, reproduced in G. Celant, Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., Milan & London, 1998, pp. 68-70).