Achrome

Details

Piero Manzoni (1933- 1963)
Achrome
synthetic fibre on board
11¼ x 8 3/8in. (28.5 x 21.3cm.)
Executed circa 1962

Provenance

Manzoni Family Collection, Milan.
The Mayor Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2007.

Literature

Sarenco, Piero Manzoni: opere e giorni, Brescia 1973 (illustrated, unpaged).
G. Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo generale, Milan 1975, no. 8 Ivd, p. 237.
E. Rossi-Roiss, Il bianco La Merda Manzoni, Bologna 1979 (illustrated, p. 46).
F. Battino & L. Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni Catalogue raisonné, Milan 1991, no. 828 BM (illustrated, p. 402).
G. Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo generale, vol. I, Milan 2004, no. 1005 (illustrated in colour, p. 343); vol. II, Milan 2004, no. 1005, p. 541.
Piero Manzoni, exh. cat., Naples, MADRE. Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, 2007, no. 377 (illustrated in colour, p. 316).
Manzoni, exh. cat., New York, Gagosian Gallery, 2009, no. 353 (illustrated in colour, p. 320).

Exhibited

Brescia, Studio Brescia, Piero Manzoni, 1973 (illustrated, unpaged).
Rome, Skene Arte, Piero Manzoni, 1978, no. 25 (illustrated, unpaged).
Modena, Galleria d'Arte Fonte d'Abisso, Manzoni, 1978 (illustrated, unpaged).
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piero Manzoni. Milano et mitologia, 1997, no. 63 (illustrated, pp. 83 and 99).

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Beatriz Ordovás

bordovas@christies.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7389 2920

Lot Essay

'The Achrome is a painting that forfeits any mimetic value. It interprets no flux but that of the materials (canvas and kaolin, cotton, woolen fiber, cobalt chloride, fluorescent pigment, etc.). It even takes refuge in them, as if they were underground currents all feeding one and the same river - a water without reflection or image aside from itself'
(P. Manzoni, quoted in Piero Manzoni's Titanic Project, exh. cat., Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris 1992, p. 89).

Achrome

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Lot Essay

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