Press Release Marisa Merz

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Press Release Marisa Merz Press Release Marisa Merz Il cielo è grande spazio / The Sky Is a Great Space 25 May―4 November 2018 Mönchsberg [4] With Marisa Merz. Il cielo è grande spazio / The Sky Is a Great Space, Press the Museum der Moderne Salzburg presents for the first time in Austria and after more than ten years in the German-speaking countries a Mönchsberg 32 5020 Salzburg comprehensive retrospective of the oeuvre of the outstanding Italian Austria artist Marisa Merz (b. Turin, IT, 1926). T +43 662 842220-601 Salzburg, 24 May 2018. Spanning five decades, the exhibition Il cielo è F +43 662 842220-700 grande spazio / The Sky Is a Great Space at the Museum der Moderne [email protected] Salzburg offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the work of Marisa www.museumdermoderne.at Merz, who is regarded as the only female representative of the Arte Povera. Opening with works from her most recent large drawings and expansive environments, the presentation traces the evolution of Merz’s art through numerous paintings and drawings, wire and wax installations, and the enigmatic sculptural heads and faces from the 1990s and 1980s to the mid- 1960s including the so-called ”Living Sculpture” (1966). Quoting a poem by the artist in the exhibition title, Marisa Merz’s poems round out the installation. “One goal of my tenure as director has been to turn the spotlight on eminent women artists with major solo exhibitions. After acclaimed retrospectives of the works of artists including Etel Adnan, Simone Forti, Andrea Fraser, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneemann, and, most recently, Charlotte Moorman, we continue this strand in our programming in 2018 with Marisa Merz and Anna Boghiguian. An extensive show dedicated to Merz, an outstanding and groundbreaking Italian artist, was one of first projects I envisioned when I started at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. I am very pleased that, in cooperation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hammer Museum as well as the Fondazione Merz, we now make this vision a reality,” Sabine Breitwieser, Director of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, who organizes the presentation in Salzburg together with guest curator Connie Butler, notes. Arte Povera emerged in industrialized Italy in the 1960s and drew attention with works made out of mundane and unconventional “poor” materials. Rather than promulgating a stylistic or ideological creed, however, the Poveristi articulated their convictions by rebelling against the precepts and restrictions of the art world. In the 1960s, Marisa Merz translates the interplay between her roles as artist, wife, and mother into a unique creative idiom. Defying the formal conventions of visual art, she largely relies on pliable materials such as aluminum, copper wire, nylon, wax, and unfired clay. To the artist’s mind, her work is not a chronological succession of self- contained objects; she leaves most of her pieces untitled and undated and remakes and transforms shapes and elements of works in varying arrangements. Although she articulates the unity of art and life perhaps more radically than any other artist, her work and her influence on others are not widely recognized in the international art world until fairly late in her career. With the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement she received at the 55th Biennale di Venezia in 2013 and the major exhibition that was presented in New York and Los Angeles last year, Merz’s oeuvre is at long last receiving the international recognition it deserves. In addition to paintings and drawings in an unmistakable style, Merz creates three-dimensional works, for which she often resorts to pliable materials such as aluminum, metal wire, copper, and wax. In 1966—at the time, she Museum der Moderne – Rupertinum Betriebsgesellschaft mbH FN 2386452 1/3 Press Release Marisa Merz. Il cielo è grande spazio / The Sky Is a Great Space Firmenbuchgericht Salzburg Press thought of her role as mother as no less important than her work on her art— her “Living Sculpture” came into being in her kitchen in Turin: sprawling T +43 662 842220-601 colossal pipe-like aluminum constructions combining sharp metal edges with F +43 662 842220-700 soft biomorphic contours. Around the same time, Merz also made a number [email protected] of other works out of nontraditional materials, including sculptures composed www.museumdermoderne.at of blankets she rolled up, tied up with leather straps and nylon strings, and staged in collaboration with her husband, the artist Mario Merz, in a performance at the beach in Fregene near Rome in 1970; a wood swing she made for her daughter Beatrice, which blends the formal rigor of minimalist sculpture with child’s play; and a series of knit nylon and copper wire objects that includes the iconic Scarpette (little shoes), which the artist sometimes wore. In the 1970s, Merz combined and extended her characteristic works made of humble materials and objects—copper wire, bowls filled with saltwater, knitting needles—in complex installations. After 1975, she began work on a number of Testine or small heads, many of them roughly modeled in unfired clay. From the 1980s onward, the—almost exclusively female—heads in her drawings and paintings became emblematic of the artist’s oeuvre; her formats have grown increasingly larger since the 1990s, a trend that culminates in the most recent works on view in the exhibition, which date from the 2010s. Merz continues to integrate individual pieces into multimedia installations of varying size and complexity. Her paintings and works of graphic art combine complex subjects with collage elements made of a variety of materials such as adhesive tape, mirrors, paper clips, bottle caps, and colored metal pigments. A characteristic example is the group of large- format works on paper representing winged angels, in which striking beauty contrasts with a surprising absence of sentimentality. The artist’s engagement with light and sound, as in the works integrating water or mute musical instruments, are further evidence of her creative versatility. Organized in the United States by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Curated by Connie Butler, Chief Curator, Hammer Museum, and Ian Alteveer, Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The presentation in Europe is jointly organized by the Fundação de Serralves— Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, and the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. In cooperation with the Fondazione Merz, Turin. Curator at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg: Sabine Breitwieser, Director, with Marijana Schneider, Curatorial Assistant DelMonico Books Prestel has released a publication (in English) accompanying the exhibition. A catalogue containing a selection of texts in German translation is published by the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. 2/3 Press Release Marisa Merz. Il cielo è grande spazio / The Sky Is a Great Space Press Accompanying program: T +43 662 842220-601 Thursday, 24 May 2018, 7 p.m. F +43 662 842220-700 Opening of the exhibition with Beatrice Merz, Daughter of Marisa and Mario [email protected] Merz www.museumdermoderne.at Friday, 25 May 2018, 2 p.m. Exhibition talk with Connie Butler, Chief Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, US, and Sabine Breitwieser, Director, Museum der Moderne Salzburg Friday, 25 May 2018, 3―6 p.m. Women Artists’ Exhibitions Symposium with VALIE EXPORT, Artist, on Magna (1975) and Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn (1985); Silvia Eiblmayr, Curator, Vienna, from Kunst mit Eigen- Sinn (1985) to Ana Lupas (2008); Connie Butler, Chief Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, on WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (2007―2009); Andrea Winklbauer, Curator, Jewish Museum Vienna, on Vienna’s Shooting Girls. Jewish Women Photographers from Vienna (2012―2013) and with Sabine Fellner, Curator, Vienna, on The Better Half: Jewish Women Artists Before 1938 (2016―2017); and Sabine Breitwieser, Director, on her program. Press contact Martin Moser T +43 662 842220-601 M +43 664 8549 983 [email protected] Press Login on website: Username: press Password: 456789 Visitor information Museum der Moderne Salzburg Mönchsberg 32 5020 Salzburg, Austria T +43 662 842220 [email protected], www.museumdermoderne.at Hours: Tue to Sun 10 a.m.―6 p.m., Wed 10 a.m.―8 p.m. During the festival season also Mon 10 a.m.―8 p.m. Admission Mönchsberg Regular € 8 Reduced € 6 Families € 12 Groups € 7 Tickets with reduced Mönchsberg lift tariff available at the bottom station. 3/3 Press Release Marisa Merz. Il cielo è grande spazio / The Sky Is a Great Space Press Images Marisa Merz Il cielo è grande spazio / The Sky is a Great Space 25 May―4 November 2018 Mönchsberg [4] The use of visual material is permitted exclusively in connection with Press coverage of the exhibition and with reference to the cited picture captions and copyrights. No work may be cut nor altered in any way. Mönchsberg 32 5020 Salzburg Download: http://www.museumdermoderne.at/en/press/ Austria User: press T +43 662 842220-601 F +43 662 842220-700 Password: 456789 [email protected] www.museumdermoderne.at Marisa Merz Untitled, n. d. Unfired clay, thumbtacks, copper wire, gold leaf, The artist and Fondazione Merz, Turin, Photo: Renato Ghiazza, Courtesy Archivio Merz, Turin Marisa Merz Untitled, n. d. Metallic paint, pastel, ink, marker, and adhesive tape on paper, Gladstone Gallery New York and Brussels, Photo: Renato Ghiazza, Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels Marisa Merz Untitled, 1968 Nylon thread, iron nails, The
Recommended publications
  • 'The Sky Is a Great Space,' and It's the Limit for Marisa Merz
    Roberta Smith “’The Sky Is a Great Space,’ and It’s the Limit for Marisa Merz” The New York Times, January 26, 2017 ‘The Sky Is a Great Space,’ and It’s the Limit for Marisa Merz Two untitled sculptures and a 1984 painting by Marisa Merz on view at the Met Breuer in the exhibition “Marisa Merz: The Sky Is a Great Space.” Credit Agaton Strom for The New York Times The Met Breuer’s fascinating and tenacious survey of the Italian artist Marisa Merz reveals her at 90 to be the queen of Arte Povera, the postwar Italian movement that favored sculptures and installations fashioned from humble, often discarded materials. And she’s nobody’s consort. “Marisa Merz: The Sky Is a Great Space” explores a 50-year career, belatedly lifting Ms. Merz from the edges of this all-male trend — whose advocates did not always include her in its first, reputation-building exhibitions in the late 1960s and early ’70s — to its throne. “Living Sculpture,” in aluminum sheeting, by Marisa Merz. Credit Agaton Strom for The New York Times The assembled works suggest that Ms. Merz’s relationship to Arte Povera is similar to the American painter Lee Krasner’s connection to Abstract Expressionism. They were both marginalized for being women, a condition intensified by being married to one of the movement’s most prominent members. (Ms. Merz’s spouse, Mario Merz, who died in 2003, was especially competitive and demanding. She devoted a great deal of time to his career, and he did not reciprocate.) The difference is that Ms.
    [Show full text]
  • Luisa Rabbia
    GALLERY PETER BLUM LUISA RABBIA PETER BLUM GALLERY LUISA RABBIA Born 1970 in Pinerolo (Torino, Italy) Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2020 From Mitosis to Rainbow, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY 2018 Death&Birth, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY 2017 Love, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (catalogue) 2016 Territories, Frieze Art Fair, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY A Matter of Life, RLWindow, Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, NY 2014-15 Drawing, Peter Blum Gallery, New York, NY Waterfall, installation for the façade of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA Everyone, Studio Eos, Rome, Italy 2012 Coming and Going, Peter Blum Chelsea, New York, NY 2010 Luisa Rabbia, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, curated by Beatrice Merz (catalogue) You Were Here. You Were There, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Genève, Switzerland 2009 Luisa Rabbia: Travels with Isabella. Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia, Italy In viaggio sotto lo stesso cielo, Fondazione Merz, Torino, Italy, curated by Beatrice Merz 2008 Travels with Isabella. Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA, curated by Pieranna Cavalchini (catalogue) 2007 Yesterdaytodaytomorrow, Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston, MA Together, Galleria Rossana Ciocca, Milano, Italy Luisa Rabbia, Massimo Audiello Gallery, New York, NY 2006 Luisa Rabbia, Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid, Spain 2005 ISLANDS, GAMeC Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Raffaele de Grada, San Gimignano, Italy, curated by
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction*
    Introduction* CLAIRE GILMAN If Francesco Vezzoli’s recent star-studded Pirandello extravaganza at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Senso Unico exhibition that ran con- currently at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center are any indication, contemporary Italian art has finally arrived.1 It is ironic if not entirely surprising, however, that this moment occurs at a time when the most prominent trend in Italian art reflects no discernible concern for things Italian. Rather, the media-obsessed antics of Vezzoli or Vanessa Beecroft (featured alongside Vezzoli in Senso Unico) are better understood as exemplifying the precise eradication of national and cultural boundaries that is characteristic of today’s global media culture. Perhaps it is all the more fitting, then, that this issue of October returns to a rather different moment in Italian art history, one in which the key practition- ers acknowledged the invasion of consumer society while nonetheless striving to keep their distance; and in which artists responded to specific national condi- tions rooted in real historical imperatives. The purpose of this issue is twofold: first, to give focused scholarly attention to an area of post–World War II art history that has gained increasing curatorial exposure but still receives inadequate academic consideration. Second, in doing so, it aims to dismantle some of the misconceptions about the period, which is tra- ditionally divided into two distinct moments: the assault on painting of the 1950s and early ’60s by the triumverate Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni, followed by Arte Povera’s retreat into natural materials and processes.
    [Show full text]
  • Arte Povera Teachers' Pack
    From Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962–1972 An Introduction Using the Arte Povera Group Leaders’ Kit We warmly welcome you and your group to Tate Modern and the exhibition Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962–1972. Included in this kit for group leaders is: • this introductory sheet, which includes curriculum links and a post-visit activity • six thematic key-work cards including suggestions for discussion in the gallery, along with colour images • Material Evidence, a photocopiable ‘sample book’ for students to use in the exhibition • an exhibition guide. The kit gives helpful information on the exhibition and can be used alongside the Tate Modern Teachers’ Kit, which outlines our strategies for working in the gallery and gives ideas on structuring and facilitating a group visit. It is available from the Tate shop for £12.99. Introduction to the Exhibition In 1967 the Italian critic Germano Celant coined the phrase Arte The Arte Povera artists also aimed to dissolve the Povera. He used it to describe the work of a group of young boundaries between the exhibition space and the world Italian artists who, since the mid-1960s, had been working in outside, often making works in the landscape, or bringing radically new ways, breaking with the past and entering a elements from the landscape into the gallery (see key-work challenging dialogue with trends in Europe and the US. Less a card 3). A famous example was Jannis Kounellis’s installation of distinctive style than a conceptual approach, Arte Povera 1969, in which he exhibited twelve horses in a gallery in Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Export / Import: the Promotion of Contemporary Italian Art in the United States, 1935–1969
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2016 Export / Import: The Promotion of Contemporary Italian Art in the United States, 1935–1969 Raffaele Bedarida Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/736 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] EXPORT / IMPORT: THE PROMOTION OF CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ART IN THE UNITED STATES, 1935-1969 by RAFFAELE BEDARIDA A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 © 2016 RAFFAELE BEDARIDA All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Art History in satisfaction of the Dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ___________________________________________________________ Date Professor Emily Braun Chair of Examining Committee ___________________________________________________________ Date Professor Rachel Kousser Executive Officer ________________________________ Professor Romy Golan ________________________________ Professor Antonella Pelizzari ________________________________ Professor Lucia Re THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT EXPORT / IMPORT: THE PROMOTION OF CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ART IN THE UNITED STATES, 1935-1969 by Raffaele Bedarida Advisor: Professor Emily Braun Export / Import examines the exportation of contemporary Italian art to the United States from 1935 to 1969 and how it refashioned Italian national identity in the process.
    [Show full text]
  • VENEZIA 2013, Le Edizioni “Event Book”, Come Quella Un Event Book Dedicato Alla 55
    a cura di GAIA CONTI e DIEGO SANTAMARIA MANGIARE LUOGHI CARATTERISTICI Ristoranti, tavola calda e fredda) (scorci e panorami suggestivi) PAUSA IN MOVIMENTO SHOPPING & IDEE REGALO (caffè, snack, spuntini) BERE IN COMPAGNIA DIVERTIMENTO (enoteche, birrerie...) DORMIRE/RELAX ARTE & CULTURA SC DOR GIU SANTA CROCE DORSODURO GIUDECCA (Dorsoduro) CAN SM CANNAREGIO SAN MARCO Altre zone: MUR SP CAS MURANO SAN POLO CASTELLO PARTECIPAZIONI NAZIONALI CROAZIA BETWEEN THE SKY AND THE EARTH CENTRO CULTURALE DON ORIONE ARTIGIANELLI PARTECIPAZIONI NAZIONALI COSTA RICA DEMOCRACY & DREAMS CA’ BONVICINI PARTECIPAZIONI NAZIONALI BANGLADESH SUPERNATURAL OFFICINA DELLE ZATTERE EVENTI COLLATERALI BBB BACK TO BACK TO BIENNALE CAMPO SANT’AGNESE CA’ BONVICINI PIA MYRVOLD ORLAN MIGUEL CHEVALIER ANNE SENSTAD OFFICINA DELLE ZATTERE BIAO ZHONG CENTRO CULTURALE DON ORIONE ARTIGIANELLI FONDAZIONE VAJONT CA’ BONVICINI CELESTE NETWORK CA' BONVICINI ANTONIA TREVISAN WILMER HERRISON RITA PIERANGELO CA' BONVICINI ROND-POINT DES ARTS PALAZZO WIDMANN MAXIM KANTOR PALAZZO ZENOBIO SERGEI NAZAROV PALAZZO ZENOBIO CONTRIBUIREMO A TRASFORMARE VENEZIA NEL PALAZZO ENCICLOPEDICO ARTE EVENTI VENEZIA PARTECIPA ALL’ORGANIZZAZIONE DI TUTTI GLI EVENTI CITATI SCOPRI DI PIÙ SU WWW.OFFICINADELLEZATTERE.IT 6 intro intro Con la guida coolturale VENEZIA 2013, Le edizioni “event book”, come quella un event book dedicato alla 55. edizio- che tenete tra le mani, sono divise tra le ne della Biennale Arte, prende vita un nozioni e gli approfondimenti di carattere progetto editoriale che vanillaedizioni ha giornalistico dedicate a un particolare e nel cassetto da qualche tempo. importante evento (la Biennale Arte) e le Una nuova collana di guide cultural- informazioni principali sulla città che lo turistiche, realizzata con la filosofia del ospita, con un’ampia selezione di locali, magazine: piacevole lettura, galleria fo- spazi, luoghi, negozi battezzati “That’s tografica, veste grafica lineare per una Cool!” e la segnalazione delle eccellen- consultazione facile e immediata, senza ze con il simbolo “Excel”.
    [Show full text]
  • Arte Povera Tate Modern, London, UK
    MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY Arte Povera Tate Modern, London, UK By Alex Farquharson (September 10, 2001) Unbelievably, 'Zero to Infinity' is the first survey of Arte Povera to be held in Britain. We've had solo, senior-status shows by many of its prime exponents - Luciano Fabro, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, Giuseppe Penone, Alighiero Boetti - in recent memory, but no overview. The movement officially began in 1967, when the young critic-turneD-curator Germano Celant coined the Arte Povera moniker, and ended in 1970, when he took the unilateral decision to bury it and work with its individual participants. Usually it's the artists that reject the way their inDividualism has been subsumed by movements defined by critics or curators, but in Arte Povera's case it was the artists (most of them, at least) who wanted to keep the show on the road into the 1970s. This says a lot for the strange coherence of this most enigmatic of art movements, anD the relative isolation Italian artists experienced prior to their integration within international post- Minimalist tenDencies at the close of the DecaDe. The show's curators, RicharD FlooD from the Walker Art Center anD the Tate's Frances Morris, made the innovative decision to extend the time frame to include Arte Povera's immediate aftermath and its pre-history, when some of its slightly older practitioners (Pistoletto, Pino Pascali and Kounellis, for example) were beginning to be known individually. Academically, this move revealed the extent to which Arte Povera did or didn't come out of nowhere, and how, after its dissolution, the artists set out on the divergent, inDividually traDemarkeD careers we know toDay.
    [Show full text]
  • Magazzino Italian Art Announces Spring 2021 Program
    Magazzino Italian Art Announces Spring 2021 Program Cold Spring, New York – January 29, 2021 – Magazzino Italian Art announces today a new slate of programming to premiere throughout the winter and spring. Including digital programs and in-person exhibitions, the museum will host an artist talk with Mel Bochner, a scholarly lecture series examining collaboration in the Arte Povera movement, a 2700 Route 9 new series of public programs exploring diversity in Italian art and culture , and a new Cold Spring, NY 10516, USA exhibition dedicated to the work of sculptor, muralist and designer Costantino Nivola, Tel +1 845 666 7202 among other notable initiatives. Magazzino’s upcoming season reflects the nonprofit’s [email protected] commitment to fostering new scholarship of and public engagement with Italian art and culture from the 1960s to present day. Follow Magazzino on social media: @magazzino “We are thrilled to introduce Magazzino Italian Art’s 2021 year of programming. After #MagazzinoItalianArt the challenges faced in 2020, we are proud to embark on a year of renewed activity, a program we feel embodies our cultivation of a strong commitment to the exploration of Media Contact USA concepts of diversity, inclusivity, and the value of collaboration,” says director Vittorio Juliet Vincente Calabrese, “Through this series of programs and exhibitions, we seek to amplify voices [email protected] and figures outside of traditional art historical narratives and see this reconfigured 212 348 6800 / 646 640 6586 curatorial and scholarly approach as a pillar for the advancement of fuller perspectives and analyses of subject matter we seek to make more known to our audiences.” Press Office ITALY Ambra Nepi More information on each program and how to participate follows below.
    [Show full text]
  • The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein Presents the Historic Years of the Arte Povera with More Than 130 Works
    The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein presents the historic years of the Arte povera with more than 130 works >“What is to be done?” asks the large scale Arte povera exhibition which the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein has realized for its 10 year anniversary. The exhibition focuses on the time between 1967 and 1972 and includes works by all principal artists of the Arte povera movement. The artists of the Arte povera movement sought to bridge the gap between art and life, expanding consciousness by reducing the distance between the artwork and the spectator. The familiar, ordinary things that we tend to regard as worthless were to be rediscovered as new, art-worthy materials; previously neglected everyday items were to be transformed into meaningful works of art. The new art was to be more simple and more modest in its means, and more authentic in its materials. In this way, Arte povera was to open up a poetic and sensual window on the world and the energies behind all that exists, creating metaphors of the life-force that flows from primor- dial sources – metaphors, above all, of the spiritual energies that seek to change rigid structures. The exhibition centres around the leading topics of the Arte povera: time, the history of the earth, energy and alchemy. Che fare? Arte povera includes works by Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Piero Gilardi, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, Salvo and Gilberto Zorio. Many of the works shown will be from the collection of the museum.
    [Show full text]
  • SPERONE WESTWATER 257 Bowery New York 10002 T + 1 212 999 7337 F + 1 212 999 7338
    SPERONE WESTWATER 257 Bowery New York 10002 T + 1 212 999 7337 F + 1 212 999 7338 www.speronewestwater.com Mario Merz Mario Merz (1925-2003) was born in Milan. During World War II he abandoned pursuit of a degree in medicine to join the anti-fascist movement “Giustizia e Libertà” (Justice and Freedom). In 1945 he was arrested while leafleting and spent a year in Turin’s prison where he executed numerous experimental drawings, made without ever removing the pencil point from the paper. He had his first solo exhibition in 1954, at the Galleria La Bussola in Turin. Beginning in the mid- 1960s his desire to work with the idea of the transmission of energy from the organic to the inorganic led him to create works where neon pierces objects of everyday use, such as an umbrella, a glass, a bone or his own raincoat. In 1967, critic Germano Celant coined the term “Arte Povera” and included Merz among the proponents of the new language. Merz’s first solo museum show in the United States was at the Walker Art Center in 1972, followed by a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 1989, and a survey at MoCA, Los Angeles, also in 1989. Major exhibitions of the artist’s work include Museum Folkwang, Essen (1979), Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1979), Whitechapel, London (1980), Kunsthalle, Basel (1975, 1981), Palazzo dei Congressi, San Marino (1983), Kunsthaus, Zurich (1985), Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (1990), and the Gallerie dell’Academia, Venice (2015). Merz’s numerous honors included the Laurea honoris causa (2001) and the Praemium Imperiale (2003).
    [Show full text]
  • The Risorgimento of Arte Povera by Steven Pestana
    MAILINGLIST ArtSeen November 2nd, 2017 The Risorgimento of Arte Povera by Steven Pestana HAUSER & WIRTH | SEPTEMBER 12 – OCTOBER 28, 2017 LUXEMBOURG & DAYAN | OCTOBER 23 – DECEMBER 16, 2017 LÉVY GORVY | NOVEMBER 2 – DECEMBER 23, 2017 MAGAZZINO ITALIAN ART | JUNE 28 – ONGOING This fall, three major international galleries in New York City and one private collection mark the semi-centennial of Italy’s pivotal Arte Povera era with comprehensive surveys. Since its inception in the 1960s, this influential group of post-war disruptors has enjoyed varying degrees of visibility in the United States, with a significantly stronger presence in commercial galleries than in the country’s institutional collections. Although these artists remain vital fixtures in European institutions, isolated works on view in stateside museums are scarce, and few museums have featured 1 poveristi solo exhibitions in recent memory. Nevertheless, Installation shot of Arte Povera. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth. from the outset of the movement, Arte Povera has remained a closely held love for a cadre of devoted supporters. Taking place outside the public institutions where we might ordinarily expect to find this sort of historical treatment, these four exhibitions richly illustrate their patronage and a compelling portrait of a fiercely innovative group of artists. From September to October, Hauser & Wirth hosted Arte Povera: Curated by Ingvild Goetz. Goetz began collecting Arte Povera with a passion early on; her extensive holdings occupied three floors of the gallery’s Chelsea location, amounting to a museum-quality display. This season, Luxembourg & Dayan is presenting Contingencies: Arte Povera and After, an exhibition showcasing historically significant selections alongside a handful of emerging artists.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking Gender Papers
    UCLA Thinking Gender Papers Title AN(OTHER) MARISA MERZ: AN ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION TO THE ‘FEMINIZED’ ARTWORKS OF ARTE POVERA ARTIST MARISA MERZ Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/834925d0 Author Moscoso, Mariana Publication Date 2014-04-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California 1 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS AN(OTHER) MARISA MERZ: AN ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION TO THE ‘FEMINIZED’ ARTWORKS OF ARTE POVERA ARTIST MARISA MERZ AN ADAPTED VERSION OF THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THINKING GENDER 2014 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 7, 2014 BY MARIANA MOSCOSO 2 In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the contributions of the Italian postwar avant-garde movement Arte Povera. Although the movement is primarily characterized by the experimental use of non-traditional art materials, there is also a revolutionary side to the group declared in its anti-capitalist 1967 manifesto “Arte Povera: Notes for a guerrilla war.”1 On September 24, 2011 the exhibition Arte Povera 1968 opened at the Museo d’Arte Moderna Bologna (MaMBo). Arte Povera 1968 was the first of eight commemorative exhibitions that opened across Italy as part of the larger event of Arte Povera 2011. This event continued for several months and was accompanied by a number of publications that celebrated and reappraised the achievements of the movement and its members, both locally and internationally, including its sole female artist Marisa Merz. This paper is part of a larger project, which reexamines the artworks of Marisa Merz unstable relationship to Arte Povera. Since the 1980s, Merz’s association and contributions to Arte Povera have been included in several exhibitions and her participation has become more prominent in the last few years.
    [Show full text]