Milan, 1950s – Home of the Avant-Garde
There are few artists whose work exhibits such radicalism and has such a lasting universal impact as that of Piero Manzoni. In conceptual terms, he is a successor to Marcel Duchamp, who was one of the first to push beyond the boundaries of the concept of art. Manzoni, however, was intensively involved with the cultural and social significance of creative processes, the figure of the artist, and the postmodern significance of authorship. His works are challenging and, at times, difficult to grasp, but at the same time, they are intellectually convincing and fascinating. For its aesthetic and artistic use of materials, his work reached its pinnacle with the creation of the “Achromes” as of 1957.
Manzoni grew up the son of the noble family Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo between the country house in Soprazocco near Lake Garda and the family home in Milan. His analytical mind initially led him to study law in Milan. However, he soon switched to philosophy at the University of Rome before returning to Milan, where he became part of the art scene and was surrounded by 'Spazialismo' artists associated with the gallerist Carlo Cardazzo and the group around Lucio Fontana. Manzoni initially joined the “Gruppo nucleare” around Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo, who, after the 'zero hour' that marked the end of the Second World War, were struggling to find new positions in painting and artistic expression.





Yves le Monochrome – Piero l'Achrome
The various international networks of artist groups at this epochal turning point were united in their rejection of academic “isms” and styles. Instead, they believed that abstraction would bring about a revolution and a cleansing and would overcome boundaries.
In January 1957, Yves Klein' had his first international exhibition at Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, where he presented eleven monochrome canvases in identical formats, painted with his patented International Klein Blue (IKB). This exhibition triggered a lively art-theoretical and, above all, creative debate on Klein's pioneering positions. Fontana visited the exhibition and purchased one of the works on display, and Manzoni's work was also shown several times at the gallery. In September 1957, the “Gruppo nucleare” published the “Manifesto contro lo stile,” signed by numerous European avant-garde artists, including Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni.
“We consider Yves Klein's 'Propositions monochromes' (1956–1957) to be the last possible form of stylization: after that, all that remains is the 'tabula rasa' or the wallpaper rolls by Capogrossi. Decorator or painter: the choice is yours. A painter with a constantly new and unrepeatable vision, for whom the canvas provides a constantly changing stage for an unpredictable 'commedia dell'arte”.
This demand for the complete liberation of painting rejected any form of figuration or representational method. At the same time, it bid farewell to the individual artist's signature in the application of paint. Manzoni's experiments in the face of this challenging task led him to create the “Achromes” in autumn 1957. In this experiment, Manzoni used only canvas as the fundamental basis and surface of the painting. He soaked the folded, cut, and superimposed strips of fabric in kaolin, a gypsum-like clay, and arranged them on the ground – as if to contradict the manifesto and be a painter and decorator at the same time. He reduced 'painting' to its essence, its basis: the white-primed canvas. At the same time, the canvas appeared more complex than ever before and allowed for a haptic experience that was both light and floating, as well as rigid. The present work is part of the critical series “tela cucita a quadrati”, the grid-shaped pieces of cut-out canvas arranged in an even rhythm. In the continuation of the “Achromes,” glass fibers, cotton balls, polystyrene balls, and even bread rolls were used as materials. However, the most fascinating and aesthetically convincing pieces are the canvases, which, although liberated from the artist's signature, are brought to life by the drying and aging process of the material, as well as the folding and layering. They reveal the essence of the initial idea in its purest form.








Azimuth – the free dimension of art
Manzoni and Enrico Castellani launched the journal Azimuth in 1959 as an organ for their respective art-theoretical agendas. Edited at Manzoni's apartment via Cernaia 4, the journal included texts, poems, and artistic positions of the European and international avant-garde network, with contributions from Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, in Italian, English, and French. Although only two issues were published, the ideas expressed in them were central to the development of art. In issue no. 2 from January 1960, Manzoni presented the “Achromes” in his text “Libera dimensione” alongside “Continuità e nuovo” by Enrico Castellani, “Una nuova concezione di pittura” by Udo Kultermann and “L'oscurità e la luce” by Otto Piene: “Why not liberate this surface? Why not discover the boundless meaning of absolute space, of pure and total light? [..] For me, it is about creating a completely white (or rather completely colorless, neutral) surface outside of any painterly phenomenon, outside of any intervention alien to the value of the surface: a white that is not a polar landscape, not an evocative or beautiful material, no sensation, no symbol or anything else: a white surface that is a white surface and nothing else (a colorless surface that is a colorless surface), or better yet, that exists and nothing else: being (and total being is pure becoming).” (Quoted from: Azimuth, Issue 2, January 1960, pp. 18, 20).
In December 1959, Castellani and Manzoni opened Galleria Azimut as a producer gallery that would become the artistic center of the European avant-garde in Italy. After traveling to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany, Manzoni was in contact with the gallerist Hans Sonnenberg and his Dutch Zero Group, and in Germany with the ZERO group and the Nouveaux Réalistes in Paris. His often provocative works, such as the most famous “Merda d'artista” from 1961, were exhibited in all European art capitals. However, Manzoni's sudden death from a heart attack at the age of just 29 put an end to his creative output. Manzoni's work, which constantly oscillates between the physical and the immaterial, the material and the spiritual, significantly influenced Arte Povera and Conceptual Art. Despite their reduced means, his “Achromes,” created from the essence of painting, have a powerful presence. [KT]