Manzoni developed radical, new approaches to art in a highly provocative manner, with Dadaist wit and a conceptual double twist. Among the most well-known results of these approaches are undoubtedly his canned Merda d’artista, the Socle du Monde—a pedestal, on which the Earth rests—and the individuals declared to be living sculptures by virtue of the artist’s signature. In 1957, he began creating a series of Achromes, “non-colored” canvases, the structures and internal forms of which result from the natural interaction of various materials with kaolin or gypsum. The white, plush artificial glass fibers on the blue velvet ground of this object-like picture are subject to permanent change; they react to the movement of the air and fluctuations in the climate. The Freunde acquired this work from the collection of Dorothee and Konrad Fischer in 2016.