Manzoni in Holland Sneak Preview

MANZ ONI IN HOL LAND nai010 publishers Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

MANZONI IN HOLLAND Colin Huizing Antoon Melissen Julia MulliĂŠ

nai010 publishers Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

Contents 6

Foreword Deirdre Carasso

11 Piero Manzoni, about the Empty Canvas, the Infinite Line, the Body of the Artist and a Base for the World

Colin Huizing 41

Letters Piero Manzoni – Hans Sonnenberg

61 Manzoni in Holland Zero, ZERO, and the Birth of an International Artist Network

Antoon Melissen 101 Manzoni’s Traces

Julia Mullié 152

List of Works in the Exhibition

161 Index 163

Biographies

164

Image Credits

166

Colophon

6 FOREWORD In Schiedam – and the rest of the Netherlands – few people other than his fans and colleague artists are familiar with the work of Piero Manzoni (1933 – 1963). His last solo exhibition in a Dutch museum was at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1970, almost fifty years ago. But now the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is devoting an exhibition to the work Manzoni created during his short but influential life and to the way he worked with Dutch artists, putting him back in the spotlight.

Since 2011, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam has paid a lot of attention to the art of the 1960s. Exhibitions have included ‘nul=0, de nulgroep in een internationale context’ in 2011 and ‘Eye Attack, Op Art en kinetische kunst’ (2016) as well as successful retrospectives of the work of herman de vries (2014), Jan Schoonhoven (2015), Stanley Brouwn (2017) and Jan Henderikse (2018). Exhibitions such as these are closely linked to the museum’s collection and history. After initially collecting mainly CoBrA art, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam began to add new forms of art from the 1960s to its collection. Typically, this art continuously examines what art actually is and what part it can play in our lives. Manzoni was a great master, predecessor and pioneer on this subject: to him, everything could be art to one willing to see it as art. He literally turned the entire globe – everything – into (a work of) art, simply by placing a pedestal upside-down. Manzoni’s way of turning existing ideas and opinions upside-down still provides an infectiously refreshing perspective of reality.

There are several ways to introduce Manzoni’s work. His Achromes, for example, are paintings without colour, form or rep­ resentation. Very different is his Merda d’artista, canned artist’s excrement. It is quite possible that looking at his work, you cannot suppress a chuckle, maybe a frown or even some irritation. A white painting? Excrement? You may even ask whether it is art at all.

Traditionally, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam has always gone to great lengths to appeal to Schiedam residents who previously had no interest in visual art. ‘A museum has to do something for the people,’ said former director Pierre Jansen in a 1959 interview about the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, ‘we are not the Louvre.

7 We cannot sit and wait for visitors to come to us, we have to draw them in. With richly varied exhibitions, guided tours, youth evenings and so-called encounters with art.’1 His statement is equally relevant in 2019. We keep it in mind as we curate the museum’s exhibitions, including those with which we aim to draw a national audience. An exhibition dedicated to an artist whose art undermined art itself is in keeping with this philosophy.

Introduced to the scope of Manzoni’s oeuvre and his enormous wealth of ideas and energy, visitors can discover how Manzoni changed the hierarchical relationship between the artist and his audience and, climbing on a pedestal, become works of art themselves. Manzoni’s work may seem complicated at first glance, but it is actually inviting, playful and intriguing.

Manzoni kept in close touch with some members of the Rotterdam art scene. The correspondence with Rotterdam gallery owner Hans Sonnenberg that he conducted from 1958 reveals the very ambition that laid the foundation for the exhibition in Schiedam more than fifty years later. Numerous letters in – not always impeccable – French found their way from the Netherlands to Italy and back. Hans Sonnenberg’s efforts to draw attention to the work by Manzoni and his colleagues in the Netherlands have left ineradicable traces on the development of Dutch and European art. We are therefore – posthumously – indebted to Sonnenberg for his unbounded energy, sharp eye, love of visual art and the meticulous state in which he left his archives and art collection.

Fifty years later, the first to express confidence in this ambitious project was Hans Sonnenberg himself. The financial assistance of the City of Schiedam, the Turing Foundation, the Mondriaan Fund, Fonds 21, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds – Breeman Talle Fonds, the Jaap Harten Fonds and others who wish to remain anonymous, subsequently made the exhibition and the book possible. This exhibition could not have been realized

1 J.E. Bokhoven, 1945 – 1985. Veertig jaar verzamelen in Schiedam. Hoogtepunten uit de schilderijen- en beeldenverzameling (Schiedam: Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, 1985), 5-6. The original quote is from an interview in Het Vrije Volk, 10 October 1959.

Foreword without the trust and collaboration of Rosalia Pasqualino di Mareno, director of the Fondazione Piero Manzoni and many other people who gave us the loan of their property, both in the Netherlands and abroad. A special word of thanks goes to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, which gave the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam access to the correspondence between Hans Sonnenberg and Piero Manzoni, and to Peter van Beveren for his valuable advice.

With the indispensable support of many people, the team of employees of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and in particular curator Colin Huizing, who took the initiative, worked with great pleasure on the realization of this exhibition and this book.

Deirdre Carasso Director Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

8

1956

Group Exhibition ‘Quarta fiera Mercato’, Castello Sforzesco, Soncino Piero Manzoni exhibits his paintings for the first time in the group exhibition ‘Quarta fiera Mercato’, Castello Sforzesco, Soncino, including the work Papillon Fox, 1956.

Piero Manzoni, Papillon Fox, 1956

11 PIERO MANZONI, ABOUT THE EMPTY CANVAS, THE INFINITE LINE, THE BODY OF THE ARTIST AND A BASE FOR THE WORLD Colin Huizing

The first museum retrospective devoted to the work of Piero Manzoni (1933 – 1963) took place in 1969, six years after his premature death. It premiered at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, which collaborated with the Städtische Museum Mönchengladbach, the Kunstverein Hannover and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, respectively.1 The catalogue opened with an introductory text by German art historian and curator Udo Kulterman, who wrote: I n recent years, an artist has increasingly come to the fore whose work has been opening up new possibilities since the beginning of this decade, in the years around 1960, and who can be regarded as a turning point: the Italian Piero Manzoni.

Although only few people know and appreciate it, Manzoni’s work is of immediate importance to the current situation despite its unresolved character, its openness to all sides and the radicalism of its conception. His works are among the important products of art after the middle of the twentieth century.2

1 ‘Piero Manzoni’, Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum 26 September – 9 November 1969; Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach, 26 November 1969 – 4 January 1970; Kunst­ verein Hannover 26 January – 28 February 1970; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 13 March – 26 April 1970.

2 Udo Kultermann, ‘Piero Manzoni’, in: Coosje Kapteyn, Wim Beeren (eds.), Piero Manzoni (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1970), n.p.

Colin Huizing

Catalogue exhibition ‘nul’, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962 → Piero Manzoni creates a large Achrome for the exhibition ‘nul’ in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1962

12

Colin Huizing

14

15

Piero Manzoni

Piero Manzoni

42 12 March ’59

Dear Hans, Thank you for all the good news and for the exhibition at “the Posthoorn”. I wholeheartedly agree to exhibit there from 18 April to 8 May and to all the other conditions.

The review Direzioni will come out in a couple of days; it has already been printed; it just needs to be bound; I’ll send you a few copies.

I am going to mount an exhibition in Rome in a few days; I will also try to arrange an exhibition for the ZERO group there.

I am now quite famous in Italy; the papers are always talking about me; I am being copied and I gave rise to a polemic which has split the Italian art world in two.

Unfortunately, there is a bit of a crisis and so we don’t sell much. But in the end this will all blow over.

Thank you very much for everything you have done for me; best wishes,

Piero Manzoni

43

Letters

61 MANZONI IN HOLLAND Zero, ZERO, and the Birth of an International Artist Network Antoon Melissen

In the late 1950s, very few artists looked beyond their own borders as eagerly as Piero Manzoni. Travel, the hunger for new impressions and an intensive exchange with innovators and freethinkers formed the foundation for his life and work.

The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and France: Manzoni cast his nets widely, beyond the familiar context of his hometown Milan. Not that Milan offered insufficient challenge and innovation. Since the mid-1950s the city had developed into an alternative centre for the latest avant-garde, fed by artist initiatives and newly opened galleries such as Galleria Schwarz and Galleria Apollinaire. In January 1957, the latter had the world premiere of Yves Klein’s blue monochromes with the exhi­ bition ‘Yves Klein: Proposte monocrome, epoca blu’.1 His intro­ duction to Klein broadened Manzoni’s horizon artistically and geographically and the third venue of the travelling exhibition, the Düsseldorf Galerie Schmela, furthermore proved that the supremacy of Paris was no longer self-evident.2 During the second half of the 1950s, the old capital of the arts had to acknowledge its equals and superiors in new hubs in the network such as Milan, Düsseldorf, Bern, Frankfurt – and Rotterdam. Manzoni’s

1 ‘Yves Klein: Proposte monocrome, epoca blu’, Galleria Apollinaire, Milan, 2 – 12 January 1957.

2 ‘Yves, Propositions Monochromes’, Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, 1 May – 23 June 1957. This was the gallery’s inaugural exhibition.

Antoon Melissen

Catalogue Zero, Rotterdam, 1959

62

1959

Exhibition ‘Le Linee di Piero Manzoni’, Galleria Azimut, Milan ‘Le Linee di Piero Manzoni’ is Galleria Azimut’s first exhibition. Azimut is an initiative of artists Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni.

Catalogue Le Linee di Piero Manzoni, 4 – 21 December 1959, Galleria Azimut, Milan

1960

Exhibition ‘Monochrome Malerei’, Museum Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen This exhibition, curated by museum director Udo Kultermann, brings together an international group of artists: Hermann Bartels, Willi Baumeister, Claude Bellegarde, Enrico Bordoni, Enrico Castellani, Serge Charchoune, Piero Dorazio, Klaus Jürgen Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Johannes Geccelli, Rupprecht Geiger, Ernst Geitlinger, Raimund Girke, Raymond Grandjean, Oskar Holweck, Nicolas Ionesco, Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Walter Leblanc, Rudolf Leuzinger, Francesco Lo Savio, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Georges Mathieu, Almir Mavignier, Christian Megert, Herbert Oehm, Otto Piene, Lothar Quinte, Arnulf Rainer, Mark Rothko, Ralph Rumney, Salvatore Scarpitta, Günther Sellung, Antoni Tàpies, Günther Uecker, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Jef Verheyen, Mark Verstockt and Hans Peter Vorberg

Invitation to exhibition ‘Monochrome Malerei’, 18 March – 8 May 1960, Städtisches Museum Leverkusen, Schloss Morsbroich

81

Manzoni in Holland Informals chose their new name, ‘Nul’ group.33 The Rotterdam art critic Cees Doelman wrote about Hans Sonnenberg’s Zero group in similar terms: ‘Zero: a new beginning, a clean white sheet. Zero: the chaos of nothingness has to be remoulded.’34 At the end of July 1959, Hans Sonnenberg received an agitated letter from Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. A few weeks earlier, the Düsseldorf artists had invited Manzoni to take part in their exhibition ‘Dynamo 1’ in Wiesbaden, and he had told them about the existence of the Rotterdam Zero group. Mack and Piene’s chagrin was understandable. As early as in 1958, they had pub­ lished two issues of an artists’ magazine called ZERO, publications that accompanied self-organized exhibitions in their own studios, the so-called ‘Abendausstellungen’.35 Around 1959 ZERO magazine was developing into a platform for an international group of artists and their activities, for exhibitions, publications and campaigns. Asked about the essence of ‘ZERO’s sphere of influence’, about the international context of that which is referred to as the ZERO movement today in 1962, Otto Piene stated: ‘It is not a style, it is not a group. It is not a movement. And I don’t want it to become a movement.’ According to Piene, ZERO was ‘a point of view’.36 Piene’s ‘point of view’ was widely shared around 1960 – and crossed borders. Artists from Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands used new materials and forms of expression in search of a new authenticity; rigid art categories were broken open, artistic conventions shunned. Artists ‘painted’ with the elements, the effects of fire, light and shadow, with movement and vibration, mirroring and reflection, and with products and materials of the modern era. Artists furthermore shared a strong

33 Lecture by Gust Gils, 2 October 1959, exhibition ‘Informele Groep’, Boven de Beyerd, Breda. Gils’ lecture was published in Gard Sivik 15/16, September 1960.

34 C. Doelman, brochure ZERO (Rotterdam, 1959), n.p.

35 The three issues of ZERO appeared in April 1958, October 1958 and July 1961; the first two accompanied the seventh and eighth ‘Abendausstellung’, the last issue on the occasion of the manifestation ZERO – Edition,

Exposition, Demonstration in the Düsseldorf Galerie Schmela. About the meaning of the magazine see: Dirk Pörschmann and Mattijs Visser (eds.), 4 3 2 1 ZERO (Düsseldorf, 2012).

Part of this edition is a reprint of the three issues of ZERO. 36 John Anthony Thwaites, ‘Reaching the Zero Zone’, Art Magazine, vol. 36 (1962) no. 10, 16. The German original is included in Pörschmann and Visser, 4 3 2 1 ZERO, op. cit. (note 35), 24-28.

Antoon Melissen

Exhibition ‘Internationale Avant-Garde 1960’, Galerietheater, Bern, 1960

82

Antoon Melissen

94

95

Manzoni in Holland

97

← Piero Manzoni, Merda d’artista, 1961 Piero Manzoni, Carta d’autenticità no 41, 1961

Manzoni in Holland

Antoon Melissen in the basement of the Rotterdam Art Circle’s premises. And this gallery’s programme also regularly had a Manzoni signature, including a selection of artists from the new, international context.57 ‘Manzoni and Holland’ thus also led to a ‘Holland and the world’, to the development of a young and vital international network in which Manzoni fulfilled an essential, connecting role.

57 In 1962, Delta exhibited work by Manzoni in a group exhibition with Enrico Castellani and Jan Schoonhoven. The 1964 exhibition ‘Mikro-zero/nul’ included work by the German Zero group, the Dutch Nul artists, Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani, Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Arman, Jef Verheyen and Yayoi Kusama.

98

1960

Exhibition ‘Piero Manzoni – Luftskulptur, Billeder, 9 Linier’, Galerie Køpcke, Copenhagen

Invitation to exhibition ‘Piero Manzoni – Luftskulptur, Billeder, 9 Linier’, Galerie Køpcke, Copenhagen

1960

Linea m 7200 On 4 July 1960, Manzoni draws his longest, 7,200-metre, line in Herning, Denmark.

Piero Manzoni, Linea m 7200, 1960

101 MANZONI’S TRACES Julia Mullié

‘Piero Manzoni changed every aspect of what it meant to be an artist, which gave other young artists a great deal of freedom,’ says conceptual artist Marinus Boezem (1934).1 Following Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968), Piero Manzoni (1933 – 1963) turned all of visual art’s conventions upside down. This greatly facilitated the crossing of borders between different disciplines such as painting, sculpture and performance, not in terms of any particular style, but in terms of a new kind of mentality. This mentality comprised a desire to explore all possibilities and steer towards a new kind of awareness, one with a strong existentialist bias.

In this light the quote with which Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) opens The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) is of interest: ‘O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.’2 If ‘immortal life’ is that to which the heroic painters of the 1950s aspired, ‘exhaust the limits of the possible’ is what Manzoni strived to in reaction to these painters. He did this by exploring various traditional, art historical themes, such as the line, colour, the female nude, the model, the portrait, artistry and the signature. Adding captions with the titles of the involved objects to almost all of his works, Manzoni left nothing to the imagination: after all, the caption stated what one was looking at. However, at the same time he left everything to the imagination because the

1 Marinus Boezem, personal interview, 15 August 2018. Those present included Marinus Boezem, Maria-Rosa Boezem, Colin Huizing and Julia Mullié.

2 Albert Camus, De Mythe van Sisyphus: Een essay over het absurde (1942) (Utrecht: Uitgeverij IJzer, 2013), 11.

Julia MulliĂŠ

Piero Manzoni, 1961 → Piero Manzoni creating Linea m 7200, 1960

102

1961

Merda d’artista

Piero Manzoni, 1961

1961

Base magica - Scultura vivente

Collector Frits Becht on Base magica - Scultura vivente at the exhibition ‘Piero Manzoni’, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1970

Image Credits Courtesy Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan, pp. 9 10, 27, 32, 35, 37, 49, 79, 80, 87 (bottom), 94-95, 97, 102, 109, 110, 112, 122, 130, 139, 149, 150 The estate of Manfred Tischer, pp. 14-15 Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Fotografie Studio Tromp, Rotterdam, p. 17 Balestrini Nazarri Collection. Photo: courtesy Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan, p. 19 © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris © All rights reserved, pp. 20, 124 (top) Archivio Giancolombo, Milan, p. 22 Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, pp. 24, 147 (top), 147 (middle) © Ennio Vicario, p. 29 © Giuseppe Bellone, p. 34 RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague, pp. 39, 50, 59, 64, 65, 70, 74-75, 77 Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, pp. 43, 45, 47, 53, 55, 57 Art Stations, Foundation by Grazyna Kulcyk, Poznan, p. 58 Courtesy Collectie Becht, Amsterdam, p. 72 Karl Wolf, Archive Christian Megert, Bern/ Düsseldorf, p. 82 Courtesy Galerie Boukes, Wiesbaden and ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf, p. 87 (top) Courtesy HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Gunnar Merrild, p. 100 Courtesy HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Ole Bagger, pp. 104-105 © The Estate of Walter De Maria. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York. Photo: Nic Tenwiggenhorn, p. 114 (boven) © The Estate of Walter De Maria. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York. Photo: Jon Abbott, p. 114 (bottom) Studio Boezem. Photo: Jan Couzijn, p. 115 © Cor van Weele/MAI, p. 117 (top) Courtesy the artist and Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij, p. 117 (bottom), 142, 144 (bottom) © Uliano Lucas, p. 124 (bottom) Courtesy the artist and Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, p. 125 (top) Courtesy The Estate of Ger van Elk and GRIMM Amsterdam/New York, pp. 125 (bottom), 127 (top)

164 © Dennis Oppenheim. Courtesy Dennis Oppenheim Estate, p. 127 (bottom) Ad Petersen, Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, p. 132 © documenta archiv / Krings, p. 134 © Estate of James Lee Byars. Courtesy Peder Lund, Oslo and Michael Werner, Cologne / New York. Photo: Yves Gevaert, Brussels, p. 135 Courtesy André Cadere Archives, Brussels.

Photo: Bernard Marcelis, p. 137 Collection Musea Brugge-Groeningemuseum, Lukas-Art in Flanders VZW and SABAM Belgium, p. 144 (top) © Adieu B.V., p. 145 (top) © Estate of Bas Jan Ader/Mary Sue Ader Andersen, 2016 The Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Courtesy Meliksetian | Briggs, Los Angeles, and Metro Pictures, New York, p. 145 (bottom) Collectie Theater Instituut Nederland, Mickery archive, p. 147 (bottom) Image credits photography pp. 151-158 Marina Abramovic & Ulay, Breathing in – Breathing out. Photo: Submaster cd 269 video stills N.N. donation 1977-11-01 Marinus Boezem, Signing a Fan. Photo: Nikolaus Koliusis Kees van Bohemen, Composition-Red-YellowBlack. Photo: Arend Velsink Karl Fred Dahmen, untitled. Photo: MKM Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Duisburg/Ströher Collection Jan Henderikse, White Painting 253.59.94.

Photo: Peter Cox, Eindhoven Jan Henderikse, Players. Photo: Jelle Hellinga Oskar Holweck, 6 / VIII 59. Photo: Horst Kolberg Heinz Mack, No. 7. Photo: Peter Cox Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 65 × 50 cm.

Photo: Fotostudio FdW / Fedde de weert Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 78,9 × 109,2 cm.

Photo: Rik Klein Gotink Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 130,8 × 97,7 × 1,2 cm.

Photo: Peter Cox, Eindhoven Piero Manzoni, Achrome, 95,5 × 84,5 × 21,5 cm.

Photo: Tom Haartsen Piero Manzoni, Carta d’autenticità no. 41.

Photo: ADP, Amsterdam Piero Manzoni, Linea (frammento) (0266BM).

Photo: Matteo Zarbo

165

Image Credits Piero Manzoni, Linea di lunghezza infinita (0980BM). Photo: Orazio Bacci Piero Manzoni, Merda d’artista n. 58/63/68 and 78. Photo: Agostino Osio Piero Manzoni, Uovo scultura n. 11 (1052/11BM). Photo: Orazio Bacci Piero Manzoni, Linea m 4,51 (0915BM).

Photo: Carlo Vannini Piero Manzoni, Linea m 10,99 (0915BM).

Photo: Acerra Piero Manzoni, Linea m 11,1 (1327A).

Photo: Ghidetti-Ricci Piero Manzoni, Linea m 10,99 (1385A).

Photo: Pietro Scapin Piero Manzoni, Linea m 2,53 (1387A).

Photo: Matteo Zarbo Ian J. Pieters, Lance. Photo: Filip Tas Joop Sanders, untitled. Photo: Arend Velsink Jan Schoonhoven, Construction détruite Abraham. Photo: Jannes Linders, Rotterdam Jan Schoonhoven, Servaas. Photo: Art Stations Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk, Poznań Emil Schumacher, Belba. Photo: Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen Shinkichi Tajiri, Mountain. Photo: Zebra fotostudio’s/Egon Notermans

Colophon This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Manzoni in Holland (16 February – 2 June 2019) at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

Texts: Colin Huizing, Antoon Melissen, Julia Mullié Editing: Colin Huizing Copy-editing: D’Laine Camp, Catrien Schreuder Image-editing: Colin Huizing Image acquisition: Lotte Poortman Translation: InOtherWords, Maria van Tol; Walter van der Star Design: Haller Brun, Amsterdam Lithography and Printing: Wilco Art Books, Amersfoort Paper: Munken Lynx Rough, Muskat Grey Publisher: Milou van Lieshout, nai010 publishers, Rotterdam The exhibition and this publication were made possible by: Partners: Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan; Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands Funding: Schiedam Municipality, Turing Foundation, Mondriaan Fund, Fonds 21, Prins Bernhard Culture Fund – Breeman Talle Fonds, Stichting Jaap Harten Fonds, SDAM

Fondazione Piero Manzoni

166 © 2019 nai010 publishers, Rotterdam / Stedelijk Museum Schiedam All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

For works of visual artists affiliated with a CISAC-organization the copyrights have been settled with Pictoright in Amsterdam. © 2019, c/o Pictoright Amsterdam All works by Piero Manzoni © Fondazione Piero Manzoni, Milan Although every effort was made to find the copyright holders for the illustrations used, it has not been possible to trace them all.

Interested parties are requested to contact nai010 publishers, Korte Hoogstraat 31, 3011 GK Rotterdam, the Netherlands. nai010 publishers is an internationally orientated publisher specialized in develop­ ing, producing and distributing books in the fields of architecture, urbanism, art and design. www.nai010.com nai010 books are available internationally at selected bookstores and from the following distribution partners: North, Central and South America – Artbook | D.A.P., New York, USA, dap@dapinc.com Rest of the world – Idea Books, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, idea@ideabooks.nl For general questions, please contact nai010 publishers directly at sales@nai010.com or visit our website www.nai010.com for further information.

Printed and bound in the Netherlands ISBN 9789462085053 NUR 640 BISAC ART 006000

Italian artist Piero Manzoni (1933 – 1963) is seen as one of the pioneers of international conceptual art. During his short artistic career, he produced more than a thousand canvases, sculptures and other objects. He radically broke with the conventions of art, even making the body of the artist, and sometimes that of his audience, part of the work.

Manzoni in Holland accompanies the exhibition of the same name in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and, in addition to three elaborately illustrated essays, a timeline and an overview of the works on show in the exhibition, includes a selection of letters from the intensive corre­ spondence between Manzoni and Rotterdam gallery owner Hans Sonnenberg (1928 – 2017). Manzoni maintained a special bond with the Netherlands. His work was of great signi­­­ficance not only for Dutch zero artists and international ZERO members, but also for following generations of artists.

Manzoni in Holland tells the unprecedented story about one of the most prominent avant-garde artists of the twentieth century and his special relationship with the Netherlands.

nai010 publishers www.nai010.com

9-789462-085053