Marisa Merz

A mysterious presence looks out at us, both human and animal, profane and sacred. The image, covered in gold dust, evokes Byzantine icons. Like them, the face in this drawing remains difficult to apprehend, reflected by the precarious manner it has been attached to its support with clips.

Marisa Merz explored the motif of the face using a range of materials, in the tradition of Arte Povera. In Italy of the late 1960s, Merz and her fellow artists Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, Gilberto Zorio and her husband Mario Merz broke the boundaries of traditional art by using simple and quotidian materials and techniques. Great importance is attached to the physical quality of the materials. Here, wax shards form the mouth, a sheet of Japanese paper forms the image’s ground and a piece of carpet creates a frame for the face, developing a surprisingly poignant poetry.