Piero Manzoni 1959: tre Achromes “prensili” e una svolta New Dada
Michele Dantini
In Piero Manzoni 1959: tre Achromes “prensili” e la svolta New Dada [Piero Manzoni 1959: Three Prehensile Achromes and the New Dada Turn] Michele Dantini proposes unexpected modernist sources for the wellknown series of Manzoni’s “white” works of the years 1957-1957 while focusing on the emerging issue of sculpture and installation. The main thesis of the article is that the growing Italian reputation of New Dada artists like Twombly, Johns and even more Rauschenberg in the first half of 1959 provoked Manzoni and helped him in inventing exit strategies from the field of monochrome painting. Dantini explains historicalideological issues deeply (even playfully) involved in Manzoni’s Achromes and refuses common descriptions in the tradition of Germano Celant’s. For the first time a radical turn in Manzoni’s work is detected and strongly affirmed with new documentary evidence.