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Piero Manzoni
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Piero Manzoni was born in Soncino (Cremona) in 1933. He started painting at the age of seventeen and his first works were traditional and figurative. In 1956 he signed the document Per la scoperta di una zona d’immagini where he confirmed that art is an unconscious impulse that makes universal values evident.
In 1957 he started to exhibit his “Achromes”, white canvases covered with glue and kaolin (white clay used in the production of porcelain) and up to 1962 he had participated in 70 exhibitions, of which 23 collective and 7 individual just in Milan alone. Between 1956 and 1958 he was part of the Movimento nucleare and together with Castellani in 1959 he founded the magazine and the gallery Azimuth. He exhibited together with Bay and Fontana at the Galleria Bergamo, he had an individual show at the Galleria Pater di Milano and during a trip to Aia he came into contact with the group “Zero” from Duesseldorf.
He continued with his experiments using particular materials such as expanded polystyrene, cottonwool, glass fibres, bread rolls, wrapping paper and held happenings which led to disagreements.
Between 1959 and 1960 he created the balloons with Fiato d’artista and the Linee which are
single line drawings on sheets of paper, rolled up and placed in a tube. The longest of these was executed in Denmark and measured 7,200 metres, it was also in Copenhagen that he first signed the Uova (eggs) as authenticated sculpture with his thumb print.
In 1960 the performance entitled “Consumazione dell’arte attraverso la sua divorazione” was held at the Azimuth gallery, where the Uova sode (hard-boiled eggs) with his thumb prints on them were eaten by the public. Also in 1960 he participated in the exhibition “Monochrome Malerei” in Leverkusen Germany.
In 1961 he exhibited together with Castellani at the Galleria la Tartaruga (Castellani & Manzoni) where he put his signature on nude models or members of the public transforming human beings into Sculture viventi (living sculptures). The same period includes the Base magica, the Merda d’artista and the Socle du monde. The Base magica are pedestals that transform whoever stands on them into works of art, the merda d’artista was presented for the first time in tins at the Galleria Pescetto di Albisola Marina, and the Socle du monde is a base able to hold the weight of the whole world, executed in Herning Denmark.
Piero Manzoni died in Milan in 1963.
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