A Tribute to Piero and Wassily

Here I explore the work of two radical figures of 20th century non-objective art: the Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), who pioneered abstraction, and the Italian artist Piero Manzoni (1933-63), an innovator of the conceptual approach to making art. These images investigate colours and shapes that may resemble such works as Manzoni’s Fiato d’artista (‘Artist’s Breath’) and Kandinsky’s abstraction in which, he once wrote, he drew ‘coloured lines and blobs on the canvas with my palette knife…making them sing just as powerfully as I knew how.’

I use a chemical compound, which I manipulate in various ways to obtain the shapes and colours that I intend. The process is particularly complex; colours tend to expand into the compound very rapidly and the compound itself is extremely fragile.

In essence, this is my tribute to two great artists. Each made very substantial contributions over his lifetime. This is my personal thank you to them.