Piero Manzoni

Manzoni's brief artistic parable represents a fact of great importance in the cultural history of the second half of the twentieth century, due to the influence exerted by his dazzling expressive operations on the work of entire generations of authors. At the end of the fifties, after some experiences in the field of pictorial figuration, Manzoni proceeded to overturn the conventional relationship between the materiality of the artistic object and the immateriality of its creative moment, giving prominence to the latter: a superimposable intuition to that on which conceptual tendencies are based, which burst into European and American art only a few years later. Subsequently, he gave shape to a philosophical reflection on the artist's identity, assigning this figure the faculty to declare 'art' whatever it deems as such, which is invested by his action, which directly concerns it. Legendary works can be attributed to this vision, such as the precious boxes Merde d’artiste, put up for sale, literally, by weight of gold; in addition to representing an intelligent challenge to the art market, they indicate that being an artist coincided, in fact, with being a masterpiece. His work, usually compared to that of the exponents of Nouveau Réalisme - and of Yves Klein in particular - also constitutes one of the best legacies of the more subversive side of Dadaism. In addition to presenting some figurative elements characteristic of Manzoni's first pictorial proofs, the Untitled of the Ekilibrio Foundation testifies to his temporary adherence to the requests of the Nuclear Group, of whose Manifesto against style he is one of the signatories.