Piero Manzoni

Art that is talked about because it doesn't inspire

In the contemporary art world, the Holy Grail is to evoke ridicule in a way that heightens market awareness. The more the work is criticised, the greater its value becomes. This was first seen in the Armoury Show of 1913 where Duchamp's Nude Descending Down the Staircase was ridiculed in the American media, which helped ensure Duchamp's fame and fortune in America.

As Piero Manzoni showed with his work Artist’s Shit, even shit can be accepted into the realms of high art if criticised enough. Manzoni created an edition of 90 cans of his own faeces, along with the description '"Artist's Shit", contents 30gr net freshly preserved, produced and tinned in May 1961.' He then sold them for their comparable weight in gold.

For most of the world, only the insane would buy human faeces as if it were gold and this is what ensured their value. As soon as galleries commenced buying the shit, they were engaging in an act that would get people talking, and that talking heightened awareness of the cans that they owned. It wasn’t long before the cans of shit became far more valuable than gold. Whether praised or ridiculed, the fact that they were famous ensured their value.

For Manzoni, his work was meant to be a criticism of the contemporary art world. Basically, he was sarcastically assimilating a process as a way to undermine it. Ironically, commercial machinations subverted his criticism by making his art a success.

Artist's Shit - Piero Manzoni (1961)