Mario Merz Biography

Mario Merz was born in 1925 and died in 2003 in Milan, Italy. He was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, Tokyo; the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Vienna; and the Arnold Bode Prize, Kassel. Merz was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at institutions around the world, including Fundação de Serralves, Porto; Welhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisberg; Fundación Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

His work is included in many prominent public collections, including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Art Institute of Chicago, among many others. The Fondazione Merz in Turin, Italy, regularly displays both the works of its namesake and sponsors exhibitions by living artists.

Courtesy Gladstone

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Mario Merz contemporary artist
Mario Merz Pricing / Available Works
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Representative Artworks

Mario Merz, Pietra serena depositata e schiacciata dal proprio peso così tutto quello che è in basso va in alto e tutto quello che è in alto va in basso, sopraelevazione e opera incerta di pietra serena (2003). Metal structure, pietra serena, fruit, vegetables. 3800 x 1000 x h 100 cm; Doppia Spirale (1990). Two tables of metal tubes, glass. 1100 x 1100 cm. Exhibition view: The other, the same, ZACentrale, Palermo (26 October 2021–27 March 2022). Photo: Filippo M. Nicoletti.
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Mario Merz, Doppia Spirale (1990). Two tables of metal tubes, glass. 1100 x 1100 cm; Se la forma scompare la sua radice è eterna (1982). Neon. Dimensions variable. Exhibition view: The other, the same, ZACentrale, Palermo (26 October 2021–27 March 2022). Courtesy the artist and Fondazione Merz. Photo: Filippo M. Nicoletti.
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Mario Merz, Acceleration = Dream, Fibonacci Numbers in Neon and Motorcycle Phantom (Accelerazione = sogna, numeri di Fibonacci al neon e motocicletta fantasma) (1972, refabricated 1989). Motorcycle, ankole horns, and neon. Dimensions variable. Collection Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; gift of the artist, 1989. © 2024 Artists Rights Society, New York/SIAE, Rome. Photo: Ariel Ione Williams.
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Back to front: Lida Abdul, Time, Love and the Workings of Anti-Love (2013). Sound piece, photographic camera, 480 photos b/w. Dimensions variable. Private collection. Courtesy the artist and Fondazione Merz; Lawrence Weiner, Built at the edge of the grass (2007). Language + the materials referred to. Courtesy the artist, Galleria Giorgio Persano, and Fondazione Merz; Mario Merz, Lumaca (1970). 16 mm film, b/w, sound. 1 min 30 sec from Gerry Schum Television, Identifications. Private collection. Exhibition view: The other, the same, ZACentrale, Palermo (26 October 2021–27 March 2022). Photo: Filippo M. Nicoletti.
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Courtesy Dia:Beacon.

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Mario Merz in Ocula Magazine

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