<p>Mario Merz (1925 - 2003) was an Italian artist, and husband of Marisa Merz. Born in Milano, Merz started drawing during World War II, when he was imprisoned for his activities with the Giustizia e Libertà antifascist group. He experimented with a continuous graphic stroke-not removing his pencil point from the paper. He explored the relationship between nature and the subject, until he had his first exhibitions in the intellectually incendiary context of Turin in the 1950s, a cultural climate fed by such writers as Cesare Pavese, Elio Vittorini, and Ezra Pound. He met Marisa Merz during his studies in Turin in the 1950s. They were associated with the development of Arte Povera, and they were both influenced by each other's works. Merz discarded abstract expressionism's subjectivity in favor of opening art to exterior space: a seed or a leaf in the wind becomes a universe on his canvas. From the mid-1960s, his paintings echoed his desire to explore the transmission of energy from the organic to the inorganic, a curiosity that led him to create works in which neon lights pierced everyday objects, such as an umbrella, a glass, a bottle or his own raincoat. Without ever using ready-made objects as "things" (at least to the extent that the Nouveau Realistes in France did), Merz and his companions drew the guiding lines of a renewed life for Italian art in the global context. This book was published on the occasion of the Mario Merz Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles and the Incontri Internazionali d'Arte in Rome to celebrate a series of installations for MOCA's California Plaza facility.</p>

Mario Merz at MOCA (English and Italian Edition)

Merz, Mario

Fabbri Editori

This remarkably clever, endearingly sweet book for children brings to life the art of Arte Povera, telling the Tales of Stone and More in short passages that describe the work of artists like Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, and others who use stone, glass, wood, and fabric to create their works of art. It teaches that stones can think, that clothes thrown in a room become a rainbow, and that trees are infinitely more glorious than skyscrapers. The text and pictures will fire the imagination of readers young and old, inspiring them to think of how they can make art in their bedrooms and backyards out of things they find in their houses and neighborhoods.

Tales Of Stone And More

Anselmo, Giovanni

Kounellis, Jannis

Zorio, Gilberto

Fabro, Luciano

Penone, Giuseppe

Boetti, Alighiero e

Quarzo, Guido

Pistoletto, Michelangelo

Pascali, Pino

Merz, Marisa

Arts & Photography

Hopefulmonster

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Mario Merz: Historical Works--Installations at the Fundacion Proa in Buenos Aires, this catalogue collects documentation of the works in the exhibition, including many late works, together with a series of the artist's most representative works and critical texts.

Mario Merz

Fragasso, Lucas

Guglielmino, Giorgio

Petruschansky, Hugo

Rosenberg, Adriana

Individual Artists

Mario Merz's igloos, paintings, neon light sculptures and Fibonacci numerical-sequence installations have long been considered emblematic of the Arte Povera movement. This volume accompanies the artist's first exhibition ever in Brazil and features not only the works shown but also many other important pieces.

Description: "One looked like a dinosaur. Another one looked like an anteater. Another one a big lizard or a crocodile. They are not just figures or signs among the stars. They are living creatures that move up in the sky. The Universe is full of dinosaurs, kites, lizards and lions, men with arrows and rhinos." So writes Marosia Castaldi in this tender fable, in which the author's words combine with the magical visions of Mario Merz to tell of a world of imagination that can be found inside everyone. Haven't we all looked at the night sky and wondered if someone else was looking at the same stars and constellations, but from the other side?

What To Do?

Castaldi, Marosia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Merz, Mario. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Merz, Mario