Three Italian museums—the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAM) in Turin, Fondazione Merz, and Castello di Rivoli—are jointly mounting a major retrospective titled “Marisa Merz – The Dance of the Hours” to mark the centenary of Marisa Merz’s birth. The exhibition, which spans all three venues, will feature never-before-seen works alongside highlights from her 2017 U.S. retrospective, and is described as unlikely to be replicated in comprehensiveness. Merz, the only woman in Italy’s Arte Povera movement, was long known as the wife of Mario Merz but has increasingly gained recognition for her own pioneering practice in sculpture, painting, and mixed media.
This retrospective matters because it solidifies Marisa Merz’s rightful place in art history, correcting a decades-long oversight of her contributions to Arte Povera. By presenting her work across three institutions and emphasizing her influence on contemporary artists like Miriam Cahn and Micol Assaël, the show underscores the growing institutional effort to recover and celebrate overlooked female artists. It also highlights the role of family stewardship—her daughter Beatrice Merz directs the Fondazione Merz—in preserving and promoting her legacy.