TURIN, ITALY.- Italian artist Mario Merz, 83, died in Turin. He was a leading exponent of the Arte Povera movement. Last month, Mario Merz was awarded Japan Arts Association’s Praemium Imperiale. Mario Merz was one of Italy’s leading contemporary artists. He was mainly a self-taught artist. In the mid-sixties his experimentation led him to reject paint on canvas, and he explored non-traditional methods such as the use of ready-made objects, piercing the canvas with neon tubing, and using objects such as bottles, umbrellas, and raincoats. In 1967 he embarked on an association with several artists in what became a loosely defined art movement labeled Arte Povera that was marked by an anti-elitist aesthetic, incorporating humble materials drawn from everyday life and the organic world in protest of the dehumanizing aspects of industrialization and consumer capitalism. The work has had a profound effect on the art of today. 

The Praemium Imperiale is an annual award given by the Japan Art Association for global achievement in the arts. Since its beginnin in 1989, the award has become a mark of the highest international distinction. The 2003 laureates join a roster of 72 artists, including David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Christo and Jean-Claude, Anthony Caro, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ravi Shankar, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Peter Brook.