Marisa Merz
28 Sep - 10 Nov 2013
Marisa Merz
Untitled, 1984
From the exhibition, Marisa Merz, Serpentine Gallery, London (28 September – 10 November 2013)
Photograph © Andrea Rosetti
Private Collection, New York, Courtesy of Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milano / Zuoz
Untitled, 1984
From the exhibition, Marisa Merz, Serpentine Gallery, London (28 September – 10 November 2013)
Photograph © Andrea Rosetti
Private Collection, New York, Courtesy of Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milano / Zuoz
MARISA MERZ
28 September - 10 November 2013
The only female artist affiliated to the radical 1960s art movement Arte Povera, Marisa Merz holds a special place in the history of Modern art.
While her male contemporaries built art from the detritus of Italy’s industrial age, many of Merz’s ingenious sculptures, paintings and installations are made from humble domestic items and traditional craft techniques. She has a natural affinity with materials, fashioning strange and fragile objects out of clay, copper wire, metal and fabric.
This exhibition brings together sculptures, paintings and installations from the 1960s to the present, and in particular her Living Sculpture series, a collection of suspended objects made from twisted aluminium. This is the first solo show since Merz won a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for her lifetime’s achievement. The exhibition is one of two opening shows for the newly launched Serpentine Galleries. Adrián Villar Rojas: Today We Reboot the Planet runs concurrently at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.
Marisa Merz
Throughout the late 1960s, Merz was actively involved with the Arte Povera movement. The only woman affiliated with the Turin-based group, Merz often worked with textiles, linking material of typically feminine creativity with Arte Povera's call to embrace 'poor' , which could be used in art. She continues to demonstrate a sense of openness with regard to materials and processes, as evinced by her application of craft techniques, such as weaving and knitting, embracing non-traditional materials, including nylon, copper and iron, continuing to inspire so many young artists. Since the 1970s Merz has explored and expanded upon the threshold between abstraction and figuration in her mixed media works on paper, expressionistic clay heads and larger sculptural installations. Merz has participated five times in the Venice Biennale and has already been awarded in 2013 the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including shows at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2003), the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Bologna (1998), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1996) and the Centre Pompidou (1994).
28 September - 10 November 2013
The only female artist affiliated to the radical 1960s art movement Arte Povera, Marisa Merz holds a special place in the history of Modern art.
While her male contemporaries built art from the detritus of Italy’s industrial age, many of Merz’s ingenious sculptures, paintings and installations are made from humble domestic items and traditional craft techniques. She has a natural affinity with materials, fashioning strange and fragile objects out of clay, copper wire, metal and fabric.
This exhibition brings together sculptures, paintings and installations from the 1960s to the present, and in particular her Living Sculpture series, a collection of suspended objects made from twisted aluminium. This is the first solo show since Merz won a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for her lifetime’s achievement. The exhibition is one of two opening shows for the newly launched Serpentine Galleries. Adrián Villar Rojas: Today We Reboot the Planet runs concurrently at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.
Marisa Merz
Throughout the late 1960s, Merz was actively involved with the Arte Povera movement. The only woman affiliated with the Turin-based group, Merz often worked with textiles, linking material of typically feminine creativity with Arte Povera's call to embrace 'poor' , which could be used in art. She continues to demonstrate a sense of openness with regard to materials and processes, as evinced by her application of craft techniques, such as weaving and knitting, embracing non-traditional materials, including nylon, copper and iron, continuing to inspire so many young artists. Since the 1970s Merz has explored and expanded upon the threshold between abstraction and figuration in her mixed media works on paper, expressionistic clay heads and larger sculptural installations. Merz has participated five times in the Venice Biennale and has already been awarded in 2013 the prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions internationally, including shows at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2003), the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Bologna (1998), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (1996) and the Centre Pompidou (1994).