Piero Manzoni— Artist’s Breath, 1960

Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo who was better known as Piero Manzoni was an Italian artist famous for his ironic approach of art. He mesmerized his audiences with his unique and ironic take on arts and his contribution to the avant-garde art scene of his time. Best known for the ironic approaches that he celebrated arts with, his works were often compared with that of Yves Klein. Klein‘s works had a direct influence on his own work that anticipated the approach. 

These two artists worked a generation apart from one another. Manzoni was of the younger generation of Italian artists who got together with the efforts by the critic Germano Celant during the first Arte Povera exhibition which was held in Genoa, back 1967. Piero Manzoni was soon to become one of the most radiant names in conceptual arts. His early days are the indication to Piero Manzoni’s radical approaches and ironic takes on art. Explore the Piero Manzoni way of Conceptual Art and Buy Piero Manzoni’s works online.

Manzoni became the most revered of all for a series of artworks that was centered around the nature of art and called into question the art as an object. His efforts directly prefigured Conceptual Art. His work eschewed atypical artistic materials rather used everything that instigated the ideas of the art. During his experiments with artistic objects he used everything from rabbit fur to human feces as materials of art in order to "tap mythological sources and to realize authentic and universal values". The experimental arts of Piero Manzoni were controversial and ironical. Exploring his practices expands the horizon of artistic understanding. Art connoisseurs around the globe would follow the footsteps of this ingenious artist to grasp on the parameters of Conceptual art. His experiments with art can be explored online. The artworks he created would help us understand his practice and the practices of his predecessors with a deeper artistic consciousness. The irony in which Piero Manzoni explored his art can be seen in his ‘Artist’s Breath’ series. Explore Piero Manzoni’s ‘Artist’s breath’ from 1961.  

The “Artist's Breath” series consists of the remains of a red balloon with a sting attached to the piece with a further attachment of two lead seals. These elements are then attached to a wooden base and affixed with a small metal plague that carries the name of the artist and the titled of the work: PIERO MANZONI, Fiato d'artista. The balloon was originally fully inflated with Manzoni's breath but as it was slowly deflating the rubber stuck to the wooden base. The final product has become brittle and entirely fragile. The string attaches to the base only at the meeting point to the balloon and the rest of the string is free and its further kept in place with the weight of the lead seals carrying the name 'Piero Manzoni' punched into them. The series had many numbers of works in similar formats but the total number of examples of Artist's Breath that Manzoni crated is still not known. Battino and Palazzoli were able to indentify only eleven in their 1991 catalogue titled, “raisonné” (pp.443-5) yet the Archivio Opera Piero Manzoni in Milan did catalogue and archive sixteen of them to date including nine white, seven red and one blue. The critics still hope to identify more. 

These works of “Artist’s Breath” created in 1961 forms new dialogues about Conceptual art. Piero Manzoni’s artistic hikes and leaps can be experienced through the series. The approach Piero Manzoni took to explore beyond the boundaries of artistic concept is extremely ironic yet dramatic enough to attract his audiences. Explore the found variations of “Artist’s Breath” and other artworks created by Piero Manzoni. Buy Piero Manzoni’s works online. 

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