WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Mario Merz

Mario Merz

Mario Merz

Italian-Swiss, 1925

WA-00028463

Milan, Italy

PrintmakingConceptual ArtArte Povera

Representation

None documented

7

Institutional Exhibitions

30

Works in Collection

55

Assets Indexed

4

Authority-backed Facts

0

Publications Referenced

100%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (3)

WikidataQ698877 ULAN500089761

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

2024

No image

Contemporary Print Acquisitions, 1986�1988

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1988

No image

Contemporary Works from the Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1986

No image

Contemporary Drawings

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1984–1985

No image

Recent Acquisitions from the Department of Drawings

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1983

No image

New Work on Paper 2: Borofsky, Clemente, Merz, Penck, Penone

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1982

No image

Bookworks

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1977

Field Verification (4 fields)

4 cross-verified · 0 single-source

BiographyMoMA· 93%✓
Birth yearMoMA· 93%✓
LocationMoMA· 93%✓
NationalityMoMA· 93%✓

Source Registry (2)

Gladstonehttps://www.artsy.net/artist/mario-merz
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred100%
MoMA bulk 2026-05-04https://www.moma.org/artists/3941
Tier 1 · Institutional92%

About

Why this artist matters now

Mario Merz was an Italian artist and a founding figure of the Arte Povera movement who worked across sculpture, installation, and drawing using unconventional materials including neon, igloo forms, and found objects. Beginning in the 1960s, he developed a distinctive vocabulary of spiral and Fibonacci sequences embedded into works made from humble substances such as clay, branches, and copper wire. His igloos, constructed from glass tubes and neon tubing, became signature forms that interrogated shelter, geometry, and the relationship between natural growth and human construction. Merz's practice rejected the aesthetics of refinement in favor of material directness and conceptual rigor rooted in postwar European modernism.

Source: Gladstone · Trust score: 100% · Updated 1mo ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Conceptual Art

Medium

Printmaking

Related Artists

12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Modern ArtNew York Tate

Canonical record

Artworks (30)

Untitled (for Parkett no. 15)

1988 · Etching, drypoint, and aquatint, printed in color, bound into journal

composition 9 1/4 x 8 7/16" (23.5 x 21.5 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Untitled

1988 · Aquatint and drypoint

plate: 27 1/2 x 19 1/2" (69.9 x 49.6cm); sheet: 31 1/2 x 24 1/8" (80 x 61.2cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Parkett no. 15

1988 · Journal

Page: 8 x 10" (20.3 x 25.4 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Places with No Street

Places with No Street

1987 · Aluminum, wire mesh, stones, twigs, neon tubing, and wires

Overall dimensions variable, approximately 6' 6 3/4" x 21' x 28' (200 x 640.5 x 854 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Untitled 2

1985 · Lithograph

Museum of Modern Art

Untitled from Noi giriamo intorno alle case o girano intorno a noi?

Untitled from Noi giriamo intorno alle case o girano intorno a noi?

1982 · Spray paint and charcoal on transparentized paper with bamboo and clothespins

48 x 161 1/4" (121.9 x 409.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Blossom (Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains)

Blossom (Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains)

1982 · Oil, spray paint, charcoal, pastel, clay, branch, pushpins on burlap on brown paper on cardboard

52 7/8 x 75 5/8" (134.1 x 192 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

1981 · Ink and chalk on paper

9 x 8 3/4" (22.9 x 22.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

1981 · Ink and chalk on paper

8 3/4 x 17 1/2" (22.2 x 44.5 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

1981 · Ink and chalk on paper

17 3/8 x 17 3/8" (44.1 x 44.1 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

1981 · Ink and chalk on paper

8 3/4 x 8 3/4" (22.2 x 22.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Prehistoric Wind from Iced Mountains

1981 · Ink and chalk on paper

Museum of Modern Art

Eyes

1979 · Oil, metallic paint, and charcoal on burlap with blue neon tube

213.3 × 237.4 cm (84 × 93 1/2 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Fall of the House of Usher

Fall of the House of Usher

1979 · Oil, metallic paint and charcoal on canvas, with neon fixture and rock

Overall 11' 8 1/2" x 14' 3/4" (356.9 x 428.6 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Igloo, Do We Go Around Houses, or Do Houses Go Around Us?

Igloo, Do We Go Around Houses, or Do Houses Go Around Us?

1977 · Steel, slate, glass, putty and lightbox

displayed: 2667 x 5003 x 10261 mm

Berliner Tasse

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil, and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Berliner Tasse

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil, and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Berliner Tasse

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil, and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Berliner Tasse

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil, and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Berliner Tasse

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil, and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Berliner Tasse

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil, and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

1974 · Colored ink, ink, crayon, felt-tip pen, and pencil on yellow paper with cut-out holes

Museum of Modern Art

1974 · Spray paint, ink, pencil and fat on paper

19 x 26 1/4" (48.3 x 66.7 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Untitled

1973 · Red colored pencil, over diazo print, on tan wove paper

87 × 119 cm (34 5/16 × 46 7/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

View all 30 artworks →

Artwork sources (3)

30 published of 52 catalogued · 45 with image

MoMA
22 publishedof 44 catalogued37 img
Tate
6 published6 img
Art Institute Chicago
2 published2 img

Per-Artwork Provenance Chains (top 6)

6 entries · 1 sources

Fibonacci Tables
1970 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Lingotto
1968 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Cone
1967 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Igloo, Do We Go Around Houses, or Do Houses Go Around Us?
1977 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Untitled (A Real Sum is a Sum of People)
1972 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number
Che Fare?
1968 · Tate · 1 prov
Url Pattern Extraction 2026-05-27·accession_number

Record

Images

Artsy artist portrait

Artsy

Eyes (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

Eyes (Art Institute of Chicago)

Art Institute of Chicago

Relationships

12

Peers & Context5

Arte Poveraco-exhibitedJannis Kounellisco-exhibited Rashid Johnsonco-exhibited Mona Hatoumco-exhibited Senga Nengudico-exhibited

Movements2

Conceptual Art Arte Povera

Collections5

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Modern Art Tate Christie's

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Tate

Market

Auction sale history

Houses that have sold works by this artist at auction

20 lots · 2016–2025

Network

Related Artists

Jannis Kounellis

co exhibited with

co exhibited with

co exhibited with

co exhibited with

Market

Auction History

Range: $378 – $221,000

Work	Auction House	Date	Estimate	Hammer Price
Sans titre	Christie's	Nov 2025	$7,000 – $10,000	Unsold
Untitled	Christie's	Jun 2025	£12,000 – £18,000	£15,120
Sans titre	Christie's	May 2025	$6,000 – $8,000	Unsold
Sans titre	Christie's	May 2025	$15,000 – $20,000	Unsold
Sans titre	Christie's	Apr 2025	€15,000 – €20,000	€18,900
Sans titre	Christie's	Oct 2024	€70,000 – €100,000	Unsold
Sans titre (auf dem tisch)	Christie's	Oct 2024	€15,000 – €20,000	€18,900
Senza titolo	Christie's	May 2023	€15,000 – €20,000	€12,600
Il numero ingrassa (Come) i frutti d'estate, e le foglie abbondanti 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55	Christie's	Apr 2023	$700 – $1,000	$378
Untitled	Christie's	Mar 2023	£8,000 – £12,000	£23,940

Showing 10 of 20 results