DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Home
Collections
Browse
Search
About
Ordering reproductions
Citing sources
RSS feeds
Help
Search
Advanced Search
Find results with:
error div
Add another field
Search by date
from
after
before
on
to
Searching collections:
Visual Resources Center Digital Image Collection
Add or remove collections
Home
Merda d'Artista [Artist's Shit], Piero Manzoni with Merda d'Artista.
Reference URL
Share
Add tags
Comment
Rate
To link to this object, paste this link in email, IM or document
To embed this object, paste this HTML in website
Merda d'Artista [Artist's Shit], Piero Manzoni with Merda d'Artista.
View Description
Loading content ...
Description
Larger Image
Larger image may be viewed by UofL faculty, staff, and students only (log-in required using ULink username/password) at:
http://echo.louisville.edu/login?url=http://vrc-web.louisville.edu/Jpegs/820/826-42.jpg
Title
Merda
d'Artista
[Artist's
Shit]
,
Piero
Manzoni
with
Merda
d'Artista
.
Creator
Manzoni, Piero (Italian painter and conceptual artist, 1933-1963)
Date
1961
Cultural Context
Italian
Danish
European
Western European
Style/Period
Conceptual
Modern (styles and periods)
Theme
Photographs
Black-and-white photographs
Avant-garde
Advertisements
Advertising
Selling
Manufacturing
Mass production
Business (commercial function)
Industry (economic concept)
Art objects (object genres)
Conceptual art
Feces
Excrement
Cans (containers)
Tin cans
Containers (receptacles)
Figurative art
Figures (representations)
Front views
Men (male humans)
Artists
Conceptual artists
Costume (mode of fashion)
Shirts
Trousers
Pockets (costume components)
Belts (costume accessories)
Rooms
Interior views
Bathrooms
Lavatories (rooms)
Rest rooms
Sinks
Toilets
Plumbing fixtures
Subject
Photographs
Portrait photographs
Advertisements
Advertising
Selling
Commercialism
Commerce
Business & finance
Business enterprises
Industry
Puns (Visual works)
Products
Art objects
Feces
Bodily functions
Cans
Containers
Men
Artists
Business people
Posing
Clothing & dress
Shirts
Trousers
Belts (Clothing)
Rooms & spaces
Interiors
Bathrooms
Rest rooms
Toilets
Plumbing fixtures
Description
The
Artist
[Piero
Manzoni
]
with
'Merda
d'artista'
[Artist's
Shit]
, at
Angli
Shirt
Factory
,
Herning
,
Denmark
,
1961
. "This
provocative
image
of
Manzoni
with
one
of his
cans
of
excrement
could
be
seen
as a
rejoinder
to
photographic
images
of
tormented
artists
at
work
in their
studios
.
Hans
Namuth's
photographs
of the
intense-looking
Jackson
Pollock
at
work
on his
'drip'
paintings
would have been
well
known
to
Manzoni.
"
(Caption
,
p.84)
; "
Manzoni's
1959-62
output
became
increasingly
self-referential
.
Like
[Yves]
Klein
he
dealt
with the
anomalies
of
god-like
creativity
in the
commodity
era
, but
internalized
these
effects
with
analytical
precision
. His
art
correlated
exactly
with his
abbreviated
,
peripatetic
existence
. On his
travels
between
European
cities
he
signed
others
as
'Living
Sculptures'
,
providing
mock-bureaucratic
certificates
of
'authentification'
.
[…]
Manzoni
also
drew
ruthlessly
on his
body
resources
. He
produced
a
number
of
Artist's
Breath
works
consisting
of
balloons
filled
with his
'divine
pneuma'
.
Attached
to
wooden
bases
, they
poignantly
deflated
. He
made
plans
to
preserve
his
blood
in
phials
.
Most
notoriously
he
filled
90
cans
of
Merda
d'artista
(artist's
shit)
in
1961
.
[…]
Closely
related
to
[Marcel]
Duchamp's
provocative
readymades
(especially
the
urinal)
, these
cans
of
excrement
possibly
respond
to the
French
iconclast's
absurd
,
scurrilous
equation
:
'ahhre
est
à
art
ce
que
merdre
est
à
merde'
(art/ahh
is
to
art
as
'shitte'
is
to
shit)
in
which
a
verbal
pun
on
'les
ahhres'
(meaning
'down-payment'
in
French
as
well
as
aurally
connotative
of
relief)
was
probably
intended
. They
suggested
that,
socially
,
art
objects
were on a
par
with
supermarket
commodities
, a
reading
strengthened
by a
remarkable
mock-advertising
photograph
in
which
Manzoni
posed
with
one
of his
'products'
ready-canned
on the
'factory
floor'
.
Italy
,
it
should be
noted
,
underwent
its
'economic
miracle'
between
1958
and
1961
.
[…]
Manzoni
stipulated
that his
cans
were to be
sold
by
weight
according
to the
current
price
of
gold
,
referencing
[Yves]
Klein's
use
of
gold
leaf
in the
Rituals
for the
Relinquishment
of the
Immaterial
Pictorial
Sensibility
Zones
[…]
. He
thereby
invoked
the
alchemical
transubstantiation
of
base
matter
into
gold
, but
stripped
of
Klein's
romanticism
. In the
Merda
d'artista
Manzoni's
incipient
mysticism
was also
undercut
by the
body's
economy
.
Freud
had
talked
of
children
,
during
the
'anal
stage'
,
withholding
their
feces
or
bestowing
them
like
gifts
on their
parents
. This
clearly
correlates
with the
anti-aesthetic
nature
of
Manzoni's
gesture
-its
unresolved
relation
to a
parent
culture.
"
(Excerpt
,
pp.84
,
86)
People Pictured
Manzoni, Piero, 1933-1963
Location Depicted
Herning (Denmark)
Denmark
Technique
Photography
Photographic processes
Photographic techniques
Black-and-white photography
Work Type
Photographs
Portrait photographs
Advertisements
Conceptual art
Source
Hopkins, David. After Modern Art: 1945-2000. Oxford History of Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 2000. (p.[85], fig.41)
Rights
Photo Ole Bagger. Reproduced in Hopkins courtesy of Countessa Elena Manzoni, Herning Kunstmuseum. © DACS, 2000.
Digital Publisher
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center
Format
image/jpeg
Digital File Name
VRC
826-42.jpg
Rating
Tags
Add tags
for Merda d'Artista [Artist's Shit], Piero Manzoni with Merda d'Artista.
View as list
|
View as tag cloud
|
report abuse
Comments
Post a Comment
for
Merda d'Artista [Artist's Shit], Piero Manzoni with Merda d'Artista.
Your rating was saved.
you wish to report:
Your comment:
Your Name:
Submit
Cancel
...
Back to top
Select the collections to add or remove from your search
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Select All Collections
A
African American Oral History Collection
Ainslie Hewett Bookplate Collection
André Jeunet Collection
Arthur Younger Ford (1861-1926) photograph albums
August 2009 Flood Collection
C
Caufield & Shook Collection
Claude C. Matlack Collection
Collection List
D
Dwight Anderson Music Library Collection
F
Furnas Family Album Collection (ca. 1887-1910)
G
General Orlando M. Poe Collection, 1836-1890
Ghost Signs of Louisville
H
Herald-Post Collection
Hite Institute Exhibition Catalogs
Howard Steamboat Museum Collection
I
Images of Kentucky and Environs
J
Jean Thomas, The Traipsin' Woman, Collection
John P. Morton & Co. Woodblock Collection
K
Kate Matthews (1870-1956) Collection
Kentucky Maps
Kornhauser Health Sciences Library History Collections
L
Law Library Collection
Leonard Brecher Tobacco & Chewing Gum Card Collection
Louisville Leader Collection
Louisville Storefronts & Saloons Album
M
Macauley's Theatre Collection
Manuscript Leaves
Metropolitan Sewer District Collection
O
Owen postcard collection
R
R. G. Potter Collection
Romano L. Mazzoli Oral History Collection
Royal Photo Company Collection
S
Simmons College of Kentucky Collection
Stereographic views of Louisville and beyond, 1850s - 1930
U
University of Louisville Electronic Theses & Dissertations
University of Louisville Yearbooks
U of L Images
V
Visual Resources Center Digital Image Collection
500
You have selected:
1
OK
Cancel