Achrome 1960

Piero Manzoni made this Achrome at an unknown date with… what, exactly? I imagine him in the studio, puzzling over a question - how can I make a painting without actually ‘painting’? The surface is densely packed with something like cotton balls, or maybe it’s bread rolls, dipped in kaolin and cobalt. It's a field of pale pinks and baby blues, softly lit, that almost glows. He’s pushing the limits here. What does it mean to make a painting that’s practically colorless? Can a painting without pigment still be expressive? Artists are always talking to each other, even across generations, asking, what is painting? I see these achromes as part of a conversation with artists like Yves Klein, who was exploring monochrome painting around the same time. It's about pushing boundaries, asking questions, and exploring the very nature of art itself.