Merz, Mario (1925-2003) - 1986 Untitled
Felt pen, pastel, ink on vegetable tracing paper; 46 x 51 cm.
Sculptor and painter. He began work as a painter in Turin during the 1950s in the then dominant style of Art informel. Analysing, on a macroscopic scale, certain natural phenomena such as the leaves of plants, he aimed to expose their essential structure and in so doing created paintings containing spirals and parabolic lines within a ‘picturesque’ network, for example Seed in the Wind (1953; priv. col.). He also addressed himself to the human image, as in The Welder (1956; Turin, Gal. Civ. A. Mod.). After experiencing a crisis in his work during the early 1960s, from 1966 (probably under the influence of Neo Dada and Nouveau Réalisme) Merz rejected the reproduction of images by means of paint on canvas, replacing such traditional methods with the direct use of objects such as bottles or raincoats. Merz did not content himself, however, with the mere presentation of ready-made objects; it was not that he turned his back on the informal, organic inspiration of his work, but that he now entrusted it to a medium derived from the technical world, from human intervention. In works such as Pierced Glass, Pierced Bottle (1967; priv. col.) this took the form of the neon tube, which acts as a shaft of cosmic, yet ‘cold’ and concentrated energy, that penetrates objects and prevents them from becoming enclosed in static isolation. NEON had already been used by other artists including Dan Flavin, but in ways still linked to the old Constructivist ideal. Merz’s ideas were closer to those of Bruce Nauman, who also used neon in an organic way, as though it were a capillary vein, a thin irrigation canal.
Merz, Mario (1925-2003) - 1986 Untitled
Felt pen, pastel, ink on vegetable tracing paper; 46 x 51 cm.
Sculptor and painter. He began work as a painter in Turin during the 1950s in the then dominant style of Art informel. Analysing, on a macroscopic scale, certain natural phenomena such as the leaves of plants, he aimed to expose their essential structure and in so doing created paintings containing spirals and parabolic lines within a ‘picturesque’ network, for example Seed in the Wind (1953; priv. col.). He also addressed himself to the human image, as in The Welder (1956; Turin, Gal. Civ. A. Mod.). After experiencing a crisis in his work during the early 1960s, from 1966 (probably under the influence of Neo Dada and Nouveau Réalisme) Merz rejected the reproduction of images by means of paint on canvas, replacing such traditional methods with the direct use of objects such as bottles or raincoats. Merz did not content himself, however, with the mere presentation of ready-made objects; it was not that he turned his back on the informal, organic inspiration of his work, but that he now entrusted it to a medium derived from the technical world, from human intervention. In works such as Pierced Glass, Pierced Bottle (1967; priv. col.) this took the form of the neon tube, which acts as a shaft of cosmic, yet ‘cold’ and concentrated energy, that penetrates objects and prevents them from becoming enclosed in static isolation. NEON had already been used by other artists including Dan Flavin, but in ways still linked to the old Constructivist ideal. Merz’s ideas were closer to those of Bruce Nauman, who also used neon in an organic way, as though it were a capillary vein, a thin irrigation canal.