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Piero Manzoni was an Italian artist descended from ancient nobility in Milan; he died young. As an artist, he vehemently opposed various forms of tradition, even challenging conceptions of individualistic artistry.
Piero Manzoni's most controversial work is "Artist's Shit" from 1961. The piece consists of 90 tin cans, each filled with 30 grams of feces, with a trilingual label stating "Artist's Shit."
His later artworks increasingly focused on conceptual projects, where the idea took precedence and the execution became merely a consequence or expression of it. To convey infinity and limitlessness, he created, among other things, a 7-kilometer line drawn with a felt-tip pen on a roll of newsprint at the printing press of the newspaper Het Parool. Manzoni's later works were often left undeveloped as the concept itself sufficed. Shortly before his death, he compiled a catalogue of his work consisting of 100 blank pages, playfully questioning the unique nature of the artwork and the artist.
Piero Manzoni passed away on February 6, 1963, from a heart attack. His death certificate was signed by Ben Vautier and declared as an artwork in itself.
