Details
PIERO MANZONI (1933-1963)
Uovo Scultura n. 29 (Egg Sculpture No. 29)
signed and dated 'Piero Manzoni '60' and stamped with number '29' (on the interior of the box lid)
ink on egg in wooden box
box: 214 x 314 x 258 in. (5.7 x 8.2 x 6.7 cm.)
Executed in 1960, this work is number twenty-nine from an edition of at least fifty-one catalogued to this day
Provenance
Vanni and Alina Scheiwiller, Milan.
Claudia Gian Ferrari, Milan.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.
Literature
S. Bjarnhof and G. Aagaard Andersen, En sampling i brug. En bog om kunsten på Angli, Snekkersten 1962 (another from the edition illustrated).
T. Del Renzio, U. Agliani Lucas, Piero Manzoni, Milan 1967, p. 59 (another from the edition illustrated).
G. Celant, 'Piero Manzoni: unica dimensione è il tempo',in Metro, Venice 1969, p. 12 (another from the edition illustrated).
G. Celant, 'Piero Manzoni',in Ohne Titel, Cologne 1975, pp. 210-211 (another from the edition illustrated).
F. Battino, L. Palazzoli, Catalogue raisonné, Milan 1991, p. 470, no. 1052/29 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 469).
E. Rossi-Roiss, Dossier Piero Manzoni, Bologna 1991, vol. I, p. 122 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 138).
A. Vettese, 'Idee non deperibili'in Show, vol.III, 1998, no. 10 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 37).
B. Spahn, Piero Manzoni. Seine Herausforderung der Grenze von kunst und Leben, Munich 1999, p. 37 (another from the edition illustrated).
H. Konrad, R. Kriesche, Kunst-Wissenschaft- Kommunikation, Vienna 2000, p. 91 (another from the edition illustrated).
C. Harrison, P. Wood, Visual Art and Politics in France and Italy, Milton Keynes 2001 (another from the edition illustrated).
G. Celant, Piero Manzoni Catalogo generale, Milan 2004, vol. II, p. 510, no. 767/29 (this work illustrated in colour, vol. I, p. 249).
P. Manzoni, Il Diario di Piero Manzoni, Milan 2013, no. 57 (this work illustrated, p. 124).
P. Manzoni, Piero Manzoni. Scritti sullarte, Milan 2013 (this work illustrated, p. 51).
G. Celant, Su Piero Manzoni, Milan 2014 (this work illustrated, p. 71).
G. Pautasso, Piero Manzoni Divorare l'Arte, Milan 2015, p. 89, no. 57 (this work illustrated).
G. Celant, Arts & Foods, Milan 2015, p. 927, no. 724 (another from the edition illustrated).
C. Kazarian and C. Lévêque-Claudet (eds.), Piero Manzoni: Achrome, exh. cat., Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, 2016 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 182).
R. Perna, Piero Manzoni e Roma, Milan 2017, no. 39 (this work illustrated, p. 55).
Piero Manzoni. Lines, exh. cat., Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, 2019, fig. 9 (this work illustrated, p. 36).
Exhibited
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Tentoostelling Nul, 1962 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Milan, Civico Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Cinquant’anni & Dada. Dada in Italia. 1916-1966, 1966, p. 220 (another from the edition exhibited).
Turin, Galleria Notizie, Aspetti dell’avanguardia in Italia, 1966 (another from the edition exhibited).
Eindhoven, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Keuze uit de aanwinsten 1965-1968 van het Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, 1969, p. 19 (another from the edition exhibited).
Hannover, Kunstverein Hannover, Piero Manzoni, 1969 (another from the edition exhibited).
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Piero Manzoni, 1969 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).Mönchengladbach, Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach, Beleg, Kunstwerke der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts aus dem Besitz der Stadt Mönchengladbach,1969-1970 (another from the edition exhibited).
Milan, Galleria Blu, Piero Manzoni, 1970 (another from the edition exhibited).
Rome, Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna, Piero Manzoni, 1971 (others from the edition exhibited, another from the edition illustrated, no. 67).
Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Nürberg am Marientor, Künstlerhaus am Königstor, Zweiten Biennale Nürberg. Was die Schönheit sei, das weiß ich nicht. Künstler. Theorie. Werk. Austellungsverzeichnis, 1971 (another from the edition exhibited).
New York, Sonnabend Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1972, p. 49 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Ferrara, Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Participio Presente, 1973 (another from the edition exhibited).
Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, Piero Manzoni 1933- 1963. Werke aus holländischem Privatbesitz, 1973 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Piero Manzoni 1933-1963, 1973 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
London, The Tate Gallery, Piero Manzono: Paintings, reliefs & objects, 1974, no. 42 (another from the edition exhibited, illlustrated. p. 59).
Turin, Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna, Arte in Italia 1960-1977. Dall’opera al coinvolgimento. L’opera: simboli e immagini. La linea analitica, 1977, p. 76 (another from the edition exhibited).
Madrid, Centro de arte Reina Sofía, Palacio Cristal, La otra escultura: treinta años de escultura italiana, 1990, p. 29 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
New York, Hirschl & Adler Modern, Piero Manzoni, 1990, p. 97, no. 18 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 71).
Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Piero Manzoni, 1991-1992, p. 221 (others from the edition exhibited, illustrated in colour, cover, pp. 149-153). This exhibition later travelled to Herning, Herning Kunstmuseum; Madrid, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación la Caixa and Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea.
Solothurn, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Bilder aus der Sammlung von Hans und Käthi Liechti, 1993 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Esslingen, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Zero Italien. Azimut/Azimuth, 1959-60 in Mailand. Und heute. Azimut/Azimuth, 1959-60 a Milano. E oggi. Castellani, Dadamaino, Fontana, Manzoni und italienische Künstler im Umkreis/e artisti italiani nell’ambito,1995-1996, p. 138 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated, p. 208).
Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Città natura, 1997, p. 252 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piero Manzoni. Milano et mitologia, 1997, p. 78 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated, p. 98).
Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti, Dadaismo Dadaismi. Da Duchamp a Warhol. 300 capolavori, 1997 (another from the edition exhibited).
Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art at the Geffen Contemporary, Out of Actions. Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, 1998, p. 384 (another from the edition exhibited).
London, Serpentine Gallery, Piero Manzoni, 1998, pp. 158-161, 169-171, 173 (another from the edition exhibited and illustrated, p. 287).
Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Das fünte Element – Gelt oder Kunst. Ein fabelhaftes Lexikon zu einer verlorenen Enzyklopädie, 2000, p. 298 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Milan, Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente, Piero Manzoni. Consumazione dell’arte dinamica del pubblico divorare l’arte. Mostra dossier 8, 2000 (this work exhibited).
Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Ironía, 2001, p. 37 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated in colour, unpaged).
Milan, Studio Gastaldelli, Piero Manzoni, 2002 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Salamanca, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Comer o no comer. O las relaciones del arte con la comida en el siglo XX, 2002-2003, p. 354 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Naples, MADRE Museo di Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Piero Manzoni, 2007, p. 390, no. 222 (this work exhibited, illustrated in colour, p. 231).
Frankfurt, Städel Museum, Piero Manzoni, 2013, p. 256 (others from the edition exhibited, illustrated in colour, pp. 186-188).
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piero Manzoni 1933-1963, 2014, p. 161, nos. 64-66 (others from the edition exhibited, illustrated in colour, pp. 106-107).
Venice, Museo Guggenheim, Azimut/h. Continuità e nuovo, 2014-2015, p. 245 (another from the edition exhibited, illustrated).
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
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Lot Essay

Created in 1960, Uovo Scultura n. 29 (Egg Sculpture No. 29) is part of one of Piero Manzoni’s most iconic bodies of work. It consists of a single hard-boiled egg, adorned with Manzoni’s thumbprint in black ink. Enshrined in a small wooden box lined with cotton wool, the egg resembles a precious relic, and in many senses that’s precisely what it is: it is an artefact of Manzoni’s famous piece of performance art Consumazione dellarte dinamica del pubblico divorare larte (Consumption of Art by the Art-Devouring Public), held in Milan on 21 July 1960. In this communion-like ceremony, Manzoni ‘consecrated’ a number of eggs with his inked thumbprint. After consuming several himself, he invited members of the public to eat the eggs. The performance lasted exactly seventy minutes, the duration of a Catholic mass. In a typically radical and potent statement, Manzoni posited the ingestion of art as a secular eucharist. His eggs – like Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ – were transformed not in their substance, but through the audience’s faith in the transubstantiative magic of the artistic act.

Manzoni’s entire oeuvre can be seen as a critique of the traditional separation between art and everyday life, with the body as its interface. The very literal expressions of the body in his famed Artists Breath (1960) and Artists Shit (1961) are only the most provocative among his varied engagements with the conferral of value upon the artistic product. He signed people’s bodies to turn them into works of art; he made plinths for people to stand on that transformed them into living sculptures; his Socle du monde (1961), a plinth inverted as if to support the earth, declared the entire world an artwork. Seamlessly marrying the physical and the spiritual, works like Uovo Scultura n. 29 (Egg Sculpture No. 29) stand among the most elegant records of Manzoni’s ritual-conceptual acts. The artist’s ovoid thumbprint-signature neatly inhabits the form of the egg, while the egg itself taps into an ancient vein of artistic symbolism. Its resonance as a sacred icon of fertility, purity and rebirth – an idea that Manzoni’s contemporary Lucio Fontana would explore in his Fine di Dio series of 1963-64 – perfectly encapsulates Manzoni’s vision of art created anew.

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