Even though he died at the age of 30, Italian artist Piero Manzoni (1933–1963) is a key figure in the history of contemporary art, whose paradoxical and ironic works challenged the idea of what constitutes an artwork, as well as the romantic myth of the artist. Having begun his career experimenting with color and texture in his Achromes series, he embarked on the projects that are considered amongst the foundational works of Conceptual art. His most famous works include his “Magic Pedestals,” on which anybody who wanted to become an art object could stand, Artist’s Breath (a balloon inflated with his breath and mounted on a wooden base), and Artist’s Shit (an edition of sealed cans apparently containing his excrement).
Manzoni’s countryman, Maurizio Cattelan (b.1960) took the art of provocation still further. Among his famous works is a sculpture of the Pope being crushed by a meteorite, and another of Hitler praying on his knees. However, Cattelan is not only a satirist, but also an absurdist. His projects mount a challenge to art world conventions, an approach exemplified by his “Oblomov” scholarship, which was assigned to artists who were prepared to turn down all professional engagements during the course of a year. He also uses grotesque autobiographical elements, such as a self-portrait mannequin who has apparently infiltrated the museum through a hole in the floor.
