Art 109A: Art since 1945 Westchester Community College Fall 2012 Dr. Melissa Hall
The Italian Vanguard in the 1960s
Lucio Fontana One of the leading artists in postwar Italy was the Argentine-born Lucio Fontana
He founded a movement called Spazialismo, or Spatialism, and elaborated his theories in five manifestos published from 1947 to 1952
Lucio Fontana in his studio Image source: Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles
Lucio Fontana His breakthrough came when he began making “pictures” by impregnating the canvas with pigment, and then slashing them to create real – rather than illusory – spatial effects
“Piercing, slashing and assaulting the surface of his works, he challenged the traditional easel painting, forcing the viewer to contend with the work of art as an object in real space rather than a representation of illusionistic space.” Milwauke Art Museum
Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept: Expectations, 1963 Hirshorn
Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept: Expectations, 1962 Hirshorn
Piero Manzoni Italian artist based in Milan
Influenced by Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein
Piero Manzoni Image source: http://www.villagevoice.com/photoGallery/index/864191/0
Piero Manzoni He began creating a series of “Achromes” (a variant on the monochrome) in 1957
Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 1958
Piero Manzoni The achromes were made of canvas impregnated with white gesso or kaolin
The canvas was wrinkled or creased to call attention to the physical properties of the material
Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 1960 Museum of Modern Art
Piero Manzoni The achromes were meant to be experienced as physical objects, rather than “windows” or “doorways” to another space
“Abstraction and references must be totally avoided. In our freedom of invention we must succeed in constructing a world that can be measured only in its own terms. We absolutely cannot consider the picture as a space onto which to project our mental scenography. It is the area of freedom in which we search for the discovery of our first images.” Piero Manzoni, 1957 http://collections.walkerart.org/item/object/8701
Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 1962 Museum of Modern Art
Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 1962, 15 3/8 x 15 3/8 inches, Kaolin & bread rolls
Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 1961-62, 24 3/16 x 18 1/8 inches, artificial fiber
Piero Manzoni Manzoni’s next series moved in a more conceptual direction
Piero Manzoni, with one of his line works
Piero Manzoni The line drawings were made on rolls of paper of various length and sealed in cardboard cylinders
Piero Manzoni, Line (fragment), 1959
Piero Manzoni, Line 18.82m, September 1959 Tate Gallery
Piero Manzoni The artist envisioned a global project of placing massively long line drawings in cities throughout the world
Piero Manzoni, Line 7,200 m., 4 July 1960 Herning, Denmark
Piero Manzoni, working on Line 7,200 m. at a newspaper mill
Piero Manzoni He then came up with the idea of the line of infinite length -- a solid container that invites the viewer to imagine the line as “a metaphysical speculation”
Piero Manzoni, Line of Infinite Length, 1960
Piero Manzoni
Piero Manzoni, Line 1000 Meters Long, 1961. Museum of Modern Art
“Line 1000 Meters Long is more conceptual than visual. Indeed the line that is its heart eludes the eye, for these canister works are usually shown closed. Art that is invisible raises the act of thinking above the act of seeing, as Manzoni also did when, for example, he signed eggs with his thumbprint and asked a show’s visitors to eat them. A line in a can is itself a conceptual conundrum. Playful but acute, Line 1000 Meters Long invites us to question our expectations of the artwork, and our responses to it.” Museum of Modern Art
Piero Manzoni On July 21, 1960, Manzoni staged a kind of Happening called Consumption of dynamic art by the art-devouring public
Piero Manzoni, Consumption of dynamic art by the art-devouring public , July 21, 1960 Pieromanzoni.org
Piero Manzoni The artist placed his thumbprints on eggs and fed them to the public
Piero Manzoni, Consumption of dynamic art by the art-devouring public , July 21, 1960 Pieromanzoni.org
“The "art devouring" project discloses a new trend in art, shifting her role from production to consumption. The spectator is involved in the artistic activity and turned himself into a work of art. "It is not our business to educate; nor is it our business to pass a message". http://www.pieromanzoni.org/EN/works.htm
Living Sculptures The Living Sculpture series was inspired by Yves Klein’s Living Brush performances
Piero Manzoni, Living Sculptures, 1961
Living Sculptures The artist signed actual people, transforming them into art
Piero Manzoni, Living Sculptures, 1961
Living Sculptures He then issued a certificate of authenticity
Piero Manzoni, Living Sculptures, 1961
“A yellow stamp limited the artistic status to a body part, while a green one meant that the individual signed was a work of art under certain circumstances (i.e. only while sleeping or running). Finally a purple stamp stuck on the receipt of authenticity meant that the service was paid for” http://www.pieromanzoni.org/EN/works_shit.htm#scultureviventi
Piero Manzoni In the Magic Base series, the artist created pedestals for people to stand on to become works of art
Piero Manzoni standing on Magic Base No. 2, 1961
Piero Manzoni Socle du Monde turned the world itself into a work of art
Piero Manzoni Socle de Monde, 1962
Piero Manzoni Anything touched by the artist could become a work of art
Piero Manzoni Thumbprint, 1960 Museum of Modern Art
Piero Manzoni In this work the artist filled a balloon with his breath
Piero Manzoni Artist’s Breath, 1960 Tate Gallery
Piero Manzoni The work is now in the Tate Gallery
Piero Manzoni Artist’s Breath, 1960 Tate Gallery
Piero Manzoni Manzoni’s most radical work was his Merda d’artista
Piero Manzoni with Merda d’artista
Piero Manzoni In this work, the artist filled 90 tin cans with his own excrement
He priced them according to their weight in gold
Piero Manzoni, Merda d’Artista, 1961 Museum of Modern Art
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Piero Manzoni, Merda d’Artista, 1961 Museum of Modern Art
Piero Manzoni
Piero Manzoni, Merda d’Artista, 1961 Museum of Modern Art
“Manzoni’s critical and metaphorical reification of the artist’s body, its processes and products, pointed the way towards an understanding of the persona of the artist and the product of the artist’s body as a consumable object. The Merda d’artista, the artist’s shit, dried naturally and canned ‘with no added preservatives’, was the perfect metaphor for the bodied and disembodied nature of artistic labour: the work of art as fully incorporated raw material, and its violent expulsion as commodity. Manzoni understood the creative act as part of the cycle of consumption: as a constant reprocessing, packaging, marketing, consuming, reprocessing, packaging, ad infinitum.” Tate Gallery