Igloo With Vortex

In the late 1970s, Mario Merz returned to painting, the medium he began with in the 1950s. In his paintings and assemblages of this period, Merz often referenced the imagery of his Arte Povera years: the igloo, an archetypal habitat Merz associated with nomadism; tree branches, recalling natural growth; and neon tubing and bottles, which together represent the flow of energy into the space of everyday life.
The dome and the cone on the canvas are two recurring images in Merz’s work. The dome symbolizes the igloo, and the cone denotes a vortex, the spiral movement that suggests an energy force. The vortex evokes the development of the natural world. The bundled branches—fascine in Italian—evoke natural architecture and kindling. They also recall the Italian fascist symbol of the fasces, a bundle of sticks with an axe head that originated in ancient Rome. A member of Italy’s anti-fascist resistance during World War II, Merz seems to have displaced the axe blade with the blade-like vortex, thereby calling to mind the power of nature. The glow from the neon light illuminates the branches, highlighting the power of the natural world and the flow of energy out into it.