Mario Merz was a foundational figure within the Italian movement Arte Povera. Merz infused humble, everyday materials with a sensitivity to the natural and scientific worlds and the relationship between order and disorder. Senza titolo (Una somma reale è una somma di gente) (Untitled [A Real Sum Is a Sum of People]), 1972, manifests these concerns in ten sequential black and white photographs taken in a restaurant in the Italian city of Turin. Each image depicts a progressively larger group of the artist’s circle as they gather—their number growing more or less in accordance with the numeral affixed over the image. For Merz, the table symbolizes an equitable, democratic space to foster community and social interaction; the proliferation of gatherers is an emblem of life itself.

–From the Glenstone Field Guide