It is now accepted that Manzoni, through the absence of colour in his work, was seeking an absolute. In order to limit the artist's emotiveness and achieve the absence of sub- jectivity, he stopped his work a layer before the subjective layer par excellence, that of the painting. He stopped at the preparatory layer, presenting all the possibilities with a variety of materials, flat, light, covering, opaque and absorbent; even when they have character, the preparatory layers never dominate the “paint” above them, rather they accompany it, that is to say, they are neutral. Regarding the execution technique, in his writings Manzoni lists the mate- rials he has used in such an assertive and clear way that nobody questioned what he has affirmed. Traditionally, the Achromes are considered works that feature a white impasto in one of the tones which are catalogued to correspond to gesso and glue or kaolin and Vinavil® (the Italian trade name for polyvinyl acetate, also called white glue). So, from this point of view, the Achrome number 433 exam- ined in this work would belong to the first group. However, only very few studies, mainly on the occasions of maintenances or restorations, have been carried out to date on the materials effectively present in the works of Manzoni, with results that have not yet led to satis- factory answers on a series of questions which still remain open. These ques- tions regard: the intimate nature and composition of the various substances or mixtures used by the artist (starting from the Achromes); the modality of their application, including the use or not of pigments apart from kaolin or gesso; the reliability of the convention in which the gesso–glue or kaolin– Vinavil® pairings are adequate to define and comprehend these works; the modality of development of techniques through the years of the artist's short career. Such responses may only be provided by as extensive an examination as possible of groups of works, through the synergy of diverse instrumental analyses, following the mandatory protocol for the study of works of art, that implies first the exploitation of all the possible non-invasive techniques and then, only in a second instance, and whenever possible to take a micro- sample, an accurate examination to solve the problems still open, especially those related to stratigraphies.
Piero Manzoni, Achrome: An Initial Investigation into the Chemical and Technical Characterization of the Artist’s Materials
L. Bochicchio
2020-01-01
Abstract
It is now accepted that Manzoni, through the absence of colour in his work, was seeking an absolute. In order to limit the artist's emotiveness and achieve the absence of sub- jectivity, he stopped his work a layer before the subjective layer par excellence, that of the painting. He stopped at the preparatory layer, presenting all the possibilities with a variety of materials, flat, light, covering, opaque and absorbent; even when they have character, the preparatory layers never dominate the “paint” above them, rather they accompany it, that is to say, they are neutral. Regarding the execution technique, in his writings Manzoni lists the mate- rials he has used in such an assertive and clear way that nobody questioned what he has affirmed. Traditionally, the Achromes are considered works that feature a white impasto in one of the tones which are catalogued to correspond to gesso and glue or kaolin and Vinavil® (the Italian trade name for polyvinyl acetate, also called white glue). So, from this point of view, the Achrome number 433 exam- ined in this work would belong to the first group. However, only very few studies, mainly on the occasions of maintenances or restorations, have been carried out to date on the materials effectively present in the works of Manzoni, with results that have not yet led to satis- factory answers on a series of questions which still remain open. These ques- tions regard: the intimate nature and composition of the various substances or mixtures used by the artist (starting from the Achromes); the modality of their application, including the use or not of pigments apart from kaolin or gesso; the reliability of the convention in which the gesso–glue or kaolin– Vinavil® pairings are adequate to define and comprehend these works; the modality of development of techniques through the years of the artist's short career. Such responses may only be provided by as extensive an examination as possible of groups of works, through the synergy of diverse instrumental analyses, following the mandatory protocol for the study of works of art, that implies first the exploitation of all the possible non-invasive techniques and then, only in a second instance, and whenever possible to take a micro- sample, an accurate examination to solve the problems still open, especially those related to stratigraphies.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.