Piero Manzoni at Hauser & Wirth

In his brief but intense life as an artist, Piero Manzoni embraced and then cast off traditional aspects of visual art. Along with other post-war European artists, he experimented with all manner of unconventional materials and actions and his work is considered a forerunner of Conceptual art.

Piero Manzoni. Achrome. 1961. Synthetic fiber. 42 x 33 cm / 16 1/2 x 13 in. Herning Museum of Contemporary Art (HEART). Photo: Søren Krogh

In Piero Manzoni: Materials of His Time, some 70 of his pieces, mostly from the early ‘60s, are on view at Hauser & Wirth through April 7. Organized by Rosalia Pasqualino di Marineo, director of the Piero Manzoni Foundation in Milan, it is the first show of his work here since 1995 when his line drawings were shown at Moca.

Piero Manzoni. Achrome. 1961-1962. Synthetic fiber. 25 x 22 cm / 9 7/8 x 8 5/8 in. Courtesy Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Agostino Osio

Color might express itself in some of the materials such as cobalt chloride salt but not as a painting.

Piero Manzoni. Achrome. 1961. Rabbit skin, burnt wooden base. Herning Museum of Contemporary Art (HEART).Photo: Søren Krogh

Subsequently, Manzoni dedicated himself to art as a mental, metaphysical or trickster act as it was originally conceived in the early 20th century by Dadaist Marcel Duchamp.

Piero Manzoni. Achrome. 1960. Cotton wool. 31 x 25 cm / 12 1/4 x 9 7/8 in .Courtesy Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Genevieve Hanson

Manzoni remarked on ideas for possible future works in a 1961 letter to a friend. In the upstairs gallery are two posthumous recreations made for this exhibition: a room lined in white fur, another room of changing color. Amusing novelties, we will never know whether Manzoni would have approved of them.