I cannot possibly understand those artists who place themselves in front of the canvas as if it was a surface to be filled up with colours and shapes, following a taste that is more or less appreciable. They trace out a sign, walk a few steps back, look carefully at what the have just done, bend their head, half close their eyes, then jump forward and start again. They go with this sort of physical training until they have filled up the canvas completely. In this case a surface if endless possibilities is now reduced to a sort of receptacle in which artificial colours and meanings are compressed. Why do they not empty out this receptacle? Why don’t they set this surface free? Why do they not investigate the endless meaning of a total space, of a pure and absolute light?

Piero Manzoni