An der Wand hängt ein Bündel aus Zweigen, darunter eine dunkle Jacke und ein rotes, handförmiges Element. Ein rotes Lichtrohr leuchtet seitlich hervor.

Mario Merz

Senza titolo, 1969

Translated titleUntitled
MaterialLeather jacket, paint on acrylic glass, brushwood, neon tube, power cable, transformer
Dimensions124 x 145 x 40 cm
Year of acquisition1981
Inventory numberB 912
On viewOn view
Copyright© Mario Merz. VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn [2025]. Photo: Dirk Tacke, Museum Brandhorst, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

More about the artwork

In the 1960s, Mario Merz frequently used everyday objects from his surroundings, combining them with neon tubes, a material borrowed from commercial contexts that had already been introduced into the art world by artists such as Lucio Fontana (1899-1968). For Merz, even such an installation remained a “painting”: the contrasting elements are interlocked and physically penetrate each other, creating a composition that is both materially tangible and painterly conceived. The lizard, a recurring motif in Merz’s work since the 1950s, symbolizes the transition between painterly continuity and new spatial forms of presentation. Merz described it thus in 1983: “I see my paintings crawl up the wall.... They are the gecko with its perfect anatomical balance that hovers on the wall.”