Mario Merz
Untitled
1989
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is closed until further notice
Mario Merz
1982–89
This blue neon aphorism, mimicking the artist’s own calligraphy, was first used by Mario Merz in 1982. This later version was made by the artist for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in August 1989 prior to a press conference in Venice for the retrospective exhibition of his work the same year at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Merz began using neon in 1966. For him it represented the light of human intelligence, the power of thought, and the inspirational force of ideas. The merging of the signifying medium (neon/thought) and of the spelt out words (title/idea/meaning) into an art object gives this work its peculiar economy , resonance, and, so to speak legibility.
On view
Artist | Mario Merz |
Original Title | Se la forma scompare la sua radice è eterna |
Date | 1982–89 |
Medium | Neon tubes |
Dimensions | 46.6 x 1200 x 4 cm |
Credit line | Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Gift of the artist |
Accession | 89.3632.a–.b |
Collection | Acquisitions |
Type | Sculpture |
Copy caption
On view
Mario Merz
1989
Alberto Giacometti
1932
Pablo Picasso
1914
Jacques Villon
1920
On view