Installation view
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome Photo by Zarko Vijatovic
Installation view
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome Photo by Zarko Vijatovic
Installation view
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome Photo by Zarko Vijatovic
Mario Merz
Igloo, 2002 (view 1)
Metal tubular, clips, and irregular stone fragments, 70 ⅞ × 196 ⅞ × 196 ⅞ inches (180 × 500 × 500 cm)
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome, photo by Zarko Vijatovic
Mario Merz
Igloo, 2002 (view 2)
Metal tubular, clips, and irregular stone fragments, 70 ⅞ × 196 ⅞ × 196 ⅞ inches (180 × 500 × 500 cm)
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome, photo by Zarko Vijatovic
Mario Merz
I giganti boscaiuoli, 1981–82
Oil, acrylic, charcoal and neon, 98 × 230 inches (249 × 584.2 cm)
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome, photo by Zarko Vijatovic
Mario Merz
Impermeabile, 1967
Raincoat, wood, wax, neon tubes, 49 ¼ × 66 15/16 × 15 ¾ inches (125 × 170 × 40 cm)
© 2013/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome, photo by Zarko Vijatovic
The home is a relationship between space and time. Time is the creator and destructor of space. Space is not autonomous and static. Space is controlled by time.
—Mario Merz
Gagosian Paris is pleased to present a selection of works by Mario Merz. Merz's work was first shown at Gagosian London in 2006.
Merz was a key member of Arte Povera, the post-war Italian movement predicated on elemental and quotidian materials which Germano Celant introduced with the historic exhibition “Arte Povera: IM Spazio” in 1967. He often combined canvases and found objects with standard neon tubes to mark the moment when materials meet: the ecstatic act of artistic production. Beams of white light seem to pass through Impermeabile / Raincoat (1967), the wall-mounted sculpture that is an early example of Merz’s innovative combining of neon with common objects; or painted canvases, as in I giganti boscaiuoli / The Giant Woodsmen (1981–82), the first in a series of large-scale, mixed-media paintings from the early 1980s. On the unstretched canvas, two cones spiral into the peak of a mountainous black triangle, while the legs of two figures, truncated by the top of the painting, walk across this central point of contact. In the dream-like montage, personal themes and symbols meet Futurist evocations of power and speed. Echoing the propulsive force of the cones, a neon tube forming a bright white vector passes through both the canvas and the third dimension.
In addition to the everyday materials that shaped his ethos, Merz's leitmotif was the igloo, representing the ideal organic shape—"both a world and a small house.” Consistent with the culture and technology of nomadic structures built with resources at hand, Merz made his igloos from earth, cloth, putty, fruit, wax, wood, glass, and animal parts. Despite the visual touchstones—the domed roof and organic components—any resemblance to functional huts or insulated ice houses ends here. Igloo (2002) is comprised of large, overlapping stone fragments, held together by industrial clamps. Through the gaps between shards, the metal framework is visible from all angles: it is a space that is discrete yet visually accessible in its adaptation of vernacular architecture. Igloo inverts the traditional structure on which it is based both literally and conceptually, transforming a resilient shelter into a precarious sculpture.
In conjunction with the memorial service for Brice Marden held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mirabelle and Melia Marden produced a short film directed by Chiara Clemente to honor the late artist. Featuring interviews, archival photographs, and family videos, this film captures Marden’s vibrant life and enduring cultural impact.
The Summer 2024 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail of Roy Lichtenstein’s Bauhaus Stairway Mural (1989) on the cover.
John Elderfield and Lauren Mahony of Gagosian speak with the National Gallery of Art’s Harry Cooper about the new and expanded version of Elderfield’s 1989 monograph on Helen Frankenthaler that Gagosian, in collaboration with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, will publish this summer. The conversation traces Elderfield’s long interest in Frankenthaler’s work—from his time as a young curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, to the present—and reveals some of the new perspectives and discoveries awaiting readers.
The Warp of Time celebrates a hundred years of shared history between the Old Carpet Factory, a historical mansion located on the Greek island of Hydra, and Soutzoglou Carpets. Here, Salomé Gómez-Upegui interviews curator Ekaterina Juskowski about Helen Marden’s woven works within the context of the exhibition, touching upon themes of history, memory, and creative expression.
The exhibition Enzo Mari, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli at the Design Museum, London, runs through September 8. Taking a cue from this major retrospective, Bartolomeo Sala delves into Mari’s practice and convictions.
David Cronenberg’s film The Shrouds made its debut at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in France. Film writer Miriam Bale reports on the motifs and questions that make up this latest addition to the auteur’s singular body of work.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games arrive in Paris on July 26. Ahead of this momentous occasion, Yasmin Meichtry, associate director at the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, Lausanne, Switzerland, meets with Gagosian senior director Serena Cattaneo Adorno to discuss the Olympic Games’ long engagement with artists and culture, including the Olympic Museum, commissions, and the collaborative two-part exhibition, The Art of the Olympics, being staged this summer at Gagosian, Paris.
Join Brooke Holmes, professor of Classics at Princeton University, and Lissa McClure and Katarina Jerinic, executive director and collections curator, respectively, at the Woodman Family Foundation, as they discuss Francesca Woodman’s preoccupation with classical themes and archetypes, her exploration of the body as sculpture, and her engagement with allegory and metaphor in photography.
Ashley Overbeek speaks with three experts in the field of arts in medicine.
Join Vladimir Yavachev, director of operations for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, as he discusses the genesis of the artist’s work Wrapped 1961 Volkswagen Beetle Saloon (1963–2014), which Gagosian presented at Art Basel Unlimited 2024.
In conjunction with Marks and Whispers, at Gagosian, Rome, Oscar Murillo and Alessandro Rabottini sit down to discuss the artist’s paintings and works on paper in the exhibition, as well as how the show emphasizes the formal, political, and social dimensions of the color red in Murillo’s work of the last decade.
Michael Ovitz, cofounder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), looks back to 1989, the year he and the architect I. M. Pei commissioned Roy Lichtenstein to create the Bauhaus Stairway Mural for the then new CAA Building in Los Angeles. Through the experience of working with Lichtenstein, Ovitz formed a meaningful friendship with the artist.
