Mario Merz, Rabbits, Spiral of Fibonacci numbers 1202, 1980

Original drawing, pencil on paper, 25.5 x 21 cm. Signed in pencil in lower right corner. In passepartout, 50 x 40 cm. The work was made at the time of Merz's participation in the exhibition Pier + Ocean at Kröller Müller, Otterlo, 1980. Derives from a private collection in The Netherlands. In very good condition.

Italian artist Mario Merz (1925-2003) is a central figure in the Arte Povera movement of the 1960s. One of his recurring themes is the Fibonacci sequence, named after the medieval Italian mathematician. This system (originally applied to the understanding of reproduction in rabbits) extends infinitely so can be seen to correspond to proliferation in nature. In the sequence, the numbers increase by the addition of each preceding pair.