Galerie Thelen, Essen
Acqui🌠red directly from the above by the present owner in 1968

Eindhoven, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum; Mönchengladbach, Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach; Hannover, Kunstverein Hannover; Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Piero Manzoni, 1969-1970, p. 18, no. 22, illustrated

Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo Generale, Milan 1975, p. 119, no. 51, illustrated
Freddy Battino & Luca Palazzoli, Piero Manzoni Catalogue Raisonné, Milan 1991, p. 320, no. 535, illustrated
Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo Generale, Vol. II, Milan 2004, p. 461, no. 462, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is warmer in the original, with the white tending more to soft cream. The catalogue illustration fails to fully convey the rich surface texture of the pleats. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are some faint scattered stable hairline cracks, visible upon close inspection only. Some very light dust accretions have adhered to the surface in places, in particular to the work's recesses. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"Manzoni's Achrome aspired to cut the umbilical cord between artefact and artificier; it aimed at reducing art's dependency on the artist.... the Achrome represents no hue, no chromatic memory at all, nothing that might recall nature or the artist's own passion." (Germano Celant, in Exhibition Catalogue, London, Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, p. 22)

 

Piero Manzoni sought to define a rational and analytical method with which to approach both the limitations and the possibilities of the painted surface. The artist's theoretical and technical quest, shared by many artists of his time such as Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana and Enrico Castellani, was to overcome the still dominant Abstract Expressionist tenets of the painting as an area in 🐠which to express the artist's feelings and emotions, and instead to liberate the surface from the artist's hand and allow it to speak freely.

 

Manzoni named his results the Achrome, a term implying a surface stripped of colour. The series, executed between 1957 and 1963 (the year of the artist's premature death), embodies the principles and beliefs which Manzoni held throughout his whole life. Once Manzoni had stitched the canvas, he steeped it in raw plaster. Emerging as a wrinkled square surface of canvas impregnated with kaolin, these works were left to dry and assume ꦐtheir ultimate shape. It is through the drying process that the work achieves its final form, without the intervention of the a꧒rtist, who leaves the last stages of the creation to the medium itself.

 

The present work, executed circa 1959, confronts the viewer with a vibrant and dynamic surface, the soft folds capable of expressing the𝔉ir own energy. Any pre-determined emotive content has been eliminated from it, and the painting has reached its own autonomous existence, reducing human intervention to a minimum. At the same time, the organic movement of the canvas and the delicately sawn surface encounter one another and convey the artist's intent to marry material and artistic thought.