According to Merz there are only three things in the fine arts: measure, cold and light. To him those are the naked weapons of art, nothing else is relevant. Art as a grammar within a set horizon. Light gives the magic; it is the transformation of art.
He exhibited his work a total of four times in a row at the Documenta in Kassel. After that he received an appointment as a professor at the Art Academy of Düsseldorf. Later he went on to make the rooms of the Federal Foreing Office in Berlin together with architect Hans Kollhoff. In 2004 he became professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
