Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography, and what came to be known as installation art.
He is most famous for his collages, called Merz Pictures. ==Early influences and the beginnings of Merz, 1887–1922== ===Hanover=== Kurt Schwitters was born on 20 June 1887 in Hanover, at Rumannstraße No.2, now: No.
In 1893, the family moved to Waldstraße (later Waldhausenstraße) 5, future site of the Merzbau.
The business was sold in 1898, and the family used the money to buy some properties in Hanover, which they rented out, allowing the family to live off the income for the rest of Schwitters' life in Germany.
In 1901, Schwitters suffered his first epileptic seizure, a condition that would exempt him from military service in World War I until late in the war, when conscription was loosened. After studying art at the Dresden Academy alongside Otto Dix and George Grosz, (although Schwitters seems to have been unaware of their work, or indeed of contemporary Dresden artists Die Brücke), 1909–1915, Schwitters returned to Hanover and started his artistic career as a post-impressionist.
In 1901, Schwitters suffered his first epileptic seizure, a condition that would exempt him from military service in World War I until late in the war, when conscription was loosened. After studying art at the Dresden Academy alongside Otto Dix and George Grosz, (although Schwitters seems to have been unaware of their work, or indeed of contemporary Dresden artists Die Brücke), 1909–1915, Schwitters returned to Hanover and started his artistic career as a post-impressionist.
In 1911 he took part in his first exhibition, in Hanover.
By his own account, his time as a draftsman influenced his later work, and inspired him to depict machines as metaphors of human activity. "In the war [at the machine factory at Wülfen] I discovered my love for the wheel and realized that machines are abstractions of the human spirit." He married his cousin Helma Fischer on 5 October 1915.
Their first son, Gerd, died within a week of birth, 9 September 1916; their second, Ernst, was born on 16 November 1918, and was to remain close to his father for the rest of his life, up to and including a shared exile in Britain together. In 1918, his art was to change dramatically as a direct consequence of Germany's economic, political, and military collapse at the end of the First World War. "In the war, things were in terrible turmoil.
He was conscripted into the 73rd Hanoverian Regiment in March 1917, but exempted on medical grounds in June of the same year.
Their first son, Gerd, died within a week of birth, 9 September 1916; their second, Ernst, was born on 16 November 1918, and was to remain close to his father for the rest of his life, up to and including a shared exile in Britain together. In 1918, his art was to change dramatically as a direct consequence of Germany's economic, political, and military collapse at the end of the First World War. "In the war, things were in terrible turmoil.
It was like a revolution within me, not as it was, but as it should have been." ===Der Sturm=== Schwitters was to come into contact with Herwarth Walden after exhibiting expressionist paintings at the Hanover Secession in February 1918.
He showed two Abstraktionen (semi-abstract expressionist landscapes) at Walden's gallery Der Sturm, in Berlin, in June 1918,.
This resulted in meetings with members of the Berlin Avant-garde, including Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, and Jean Arp in the autumn of 1918. "[I remember] the night he introduced himself in the Café des Westens.
When they first met in 1919, Huelsenbeck was enthusiastic about Schwitters's work and promised his assistance, while Schwitters reciprocated by finding an outlet for Huelsenbeck's Dada publications.
In many ways his work was more in tune with Zürich Dada's championing of performance and abstract art than Berlin Dada's agit-prop approach, and indeed examples of his work were published in the last Zürich Dada publication, Der Zeltweg, November 1919, alongside the work of Arp and Sophie Tauber.
(Merzpicture 29a, Picture with Turning Wheel, 1920 for instance, combines a series of wheels that only turn clockwise, alluding to the general drift Rightwards across Germany after the Spartacist Uprising in January that year, whilst Mai 191(9), alludes to the strikes organized by the Bavarian Workers' and Soldiers' Council.) Autobiographical elements also abound; test prints of graphic designs; bus tickets; ephemera given by friends.
His friendship around this time with El Lissitzky proved particularly influential, and Merz pictures in this period show the direct influence of Constructivism. Thanks to Schwitters' lifelong patron and friend Katherine Dreier, his work was exhibited regularly in the US from 1920 onwards.
In the late 1920s he became a well-known typographer; his best-known work was the catalogue for the Dammerstocksiedlung in Karlsruhe.
In the late 1920s Schwitters joined the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation). === The Merzbau === Alongside his collages, Schwitters also dramatically altered the interiors of a number of spaces throughout his life.
In 1943 it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid. Early photos show the Merzbau with a grotto-like surface and various columns and sculptures, possibly referring to similar pieces by Dadaists, including the Great Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama by Johannes Baader, shown at the first International Dada Fair, Berlin, 1920.
From 1921 onwards there are signs of correspondence between Schwitters and an intarsia worker.
The poem was influenced by Raoul Hausmann's poem "fmsbw" which Schwitters heard recited by Hausmann in Prague, 1921.
Whilst his work was far less political than key figures in Berlin Dada, such as George Grosz and John Heartfield, he would remain close friends with various members, including Hannah Höch and Raoul Hausmann, for the rest of his career. In 1922 Theo van Doesburg organised a series of Dada performances in the Netherlands.
Schwitters was to use the term Merz for the rest of the decade, but, as Isabel Schulz has noted, 'though the fundamental compositional principles of Merz remained the basis and centre of [Schwitters'] creative work [...] the term Merz disappears almost entirely from the titles of his work after 1931'. == Internationalism, 1922–1937 == ===Merz (periodical)=== As the political climate in Germany became more liberal and stable, Schwitters' work became less influenced by Cubism and Expressionism.
Schwitters also performed on solo evenings, one of which took place on 13 April 1923 in Drachten, Friesland.
He started to organize and participate in lecture tours with other members of the international avant-garde, such as Jean Arp, Raoul Hausmann and Tristan Tzara, touring Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and Germany with provocative evening recitals and lectures. Schwitters published a periodical, also called Merz, between 1923 and 1932, in which each issue was devoted to a central theme.
Merz 5 1923, for instance, was a portfolio of prints by Jean Arp, Merz 8/9, 1924, was edited and typeset by El Lissitsky, Merz 14/15, 1925, was a typographical children's story entitled The Scarecrow by Schwitters, Kätte Steinitz and Theo van Doesburg.
This took place very gradually; work started in about 1923, the first room was finished in 1933, and Schwitters subsequently extended the Merzbau to other areas of the house until he fled to Norway in early 1937.
. Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris (ed.) Kurt Schwitters, poems, performance, pieces, proses, play poetics, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1993. Schwitters, Kurt (ed.) Merz 1923–32.
Hanover, 1923–1932 [numbered 1–24; nos.
Merz 5 1923, for instance, was a portfolio of prints by Jean Arp, Merz 8/9, 1924, was edited and typeset by El Lissitsky, Merz 14/15, 1925, was a typographical children's story entitled The Scarecrow by Schwitters, Kätte Steinitz and Theo van Doesburg.
After the demise of Der Sturm Gallery in 1924 he ran an advertising agency called Merzwerbe, which held the accounts for Pelikan inks and Bahlsen biscuits, amongst others, and became the official typographer for Hanover town council between 1929 and 1934.
Merz 5 1923, for instance, was a portfolio of prints by Jean Arp, Merz 8/9, 1924, was edited and typeset by El Lissitsky, Merz 14/15, 1925, was a typographical children's story entitled The Scarecrow by Schwitters, Kätte Steinitz and Theo van Doesburg.
Schwitters first performed the piece on 14 February 1925 at the home of Irmgard Kiepenheuer in Potsdam.
In a manner similar to the typographic experimentation by Herbert Bayer at the Bauhaus, and Jan Tschichold's Die neue Typographie, Schwitters experimented with the creation of a new more phonetic alphabet in 1927.
After the demise of Der Sturm Gallery in 1924 he ran an advertising agency called Merzwerbe, which held the accounts for Pelikan inks and Bahlsen biscuits, amongst others, and became the official typographer for Hanover town council between 1929 and 1934.
The stone remains as a memorial even though his body was disinterred and reburied in the Engesohde Cemetery in Hanover in 1970, the grave being marked with a marble copy of his 1929 sculpture Die Herbstzeitlose. ==Gallery of works== ==Posthumous reputation== ===Merzbarn=== One entire wall of the Merzbarn was removed to the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle for safe keeping.
There is no evidence that he used this name after 1930, however.
He published his notations for the recital in the last Merz periodical in 1932, although he would continue to develop the piece for at least the next ten years. ==Exile, 1937–1948== ===Norway=== As the political situation in Germany under the Nazis continued to deteriorate throughout the 1930s, Schwitters' work began to be included in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) touring exhibition organised by the Nazi party from 1933.
Schwitters was to use the term Merz for the rest of the decade, but, as Isabel Schulz has noted, 'though the fundamental compositional principles of Merz remained the basis and centre of [Schwitters'] creative work [...] the term Merz disappears almost entirely from the titles of his work after 1931'. == Internationalism, 1922–1937 == ===Merz (periodical)=== As the political climate in Germany became more liberal and stable, Schwitters' work became less influenced by Cubism and Expressionism.
He started to organize and participate in lecture tours with other members of the international avant-garde, such as Jean Arp, Raoul Hausmann and Tristan Tzara, touring Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and Germany with provocative evening recitals and lectures. Schwitters published a periodical, also called Merz, between 1923 and 1932, in which each issue was devoted to a central theme.
The last edition, Merz 24, 1932, was a complete transcription of the final draft of the Ursonate, with typography by Jan Tschichold. His work in this period became increasingly Modernist in spirit, with far less overtly political context and a cleaner style, in keeping with contemporary work by Jean Arp and Piet Mondrian.
He published his notations for the recital in the last Merz periodical in 1932, although he would continue to develop the piece for at least the next ten years. ==Exile, 1937–1948== ===Norway=== As the political situation in Germany under the Nazis continued to deteriorate throughout the 1930s, Schwitters' work began to be included in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) touring exhibition organised by the Nazi party from 1933.
This took place very gradually; work started in about 1923, the first room was finished in 1933, and Schwitters subsequently extended the Merzbau to other areas of the house until he fled to Norway in early 1937.
By 1933, it had been transformed into a sculptural environment, and three photos from this year show a series of angled surfaces aggressively protruding into a room painted largely in white, with a series of tableaux spread across the surfaces.
The first use of the word 'Merzbau' occurs in 1933. Photos of the Merzbau were reproduced in the journal of the Paris-based group abstraction-création in 1933-34, and were exhibited in MoMA in New York in late 1936. The Sprengel Museum in Hanover has a reconstruction of the first room of the Merzbau. Schwitters later created a similar environment in the garden of his house in Lysaker, near Oslo, known as the Haus am Bakken (the house on the slope).
He published his notations for the recital in the last Merz periodical in 1932, although he would continue to develop the piece for at least the next ten years. ==Exile, 1937–1948== ===Norway=== As the political situation in Germany under the Nazis continued to deteriorate throughout the 1930s, Schwitters' work began to be included in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) touring exhibition organised by the Nazi party from 1933.
After the demise of Der Sturm Gallery in 1924 he ran an advertising agency called Merzwerbe, which held the accounts for Pelikan inks and Bahlsen biscuits, amongst others, and became the official typographer for Hanover town council between 1929 and 1934.
He lost his contract with Hanover City Council in 1934 and examples of his work in German museums were confiscated and publicly ridiculed in 1935.
He lost his contract with Hanover City Council in 1934 and examples of his work in German museums were confiscated and publicly ridiculed in 1935.
The first use of the word 'Merzbau' occurs in 1933. Photos of the Merzbau were reproduced in the journal of the Paris-based group abstraction-création in 1933-34, and were exhibited in MoMA in New York in late 1936. The Sprengel Museum in Hanover has a reconstruction of the first room of the Merzbau. Schwitters later created a similar environment in the garden of his house in Lysaker, near Oslo, known as the Haus am Bakken (the house on the slope).
By the time his close friends Christof and Luise Spengemann and their son Walter were arrested by the Gestapo in August 1936 the situation had clearly become perilous. On 2 January 1937 Schwitters, wanted for an "interview" with the Gestapo, fled to Norway to join his son Ernst, who had already left Germany on 26 December 1936.
Having emigrated to the United States in 1936, Steinitz sent Schwitters letters describing life in the emerging consumer society, and wrapped the letters in pages of comics to give a flavour of the new world, which she encouraged Schwitters to ‘Merz’. In March 1947, Schwitters decided to recreate the Merzbau and found a suitable location in a barn at Cylinders Farm, Elterwater, which was owned by Harry Pierce, whose portrait Schwitters had been commissioned to paint.
This took place very gradually; work started in about 1923, the first room was finished in 1933, and Schwitters subsequently extended the Merzbau to other areas of the house until he fled to Norway in early 1937.
On the evidence of Schwitters' correspondence, by 1937 it had spread to two rooms of his parents' apartment on the ground floor, the adjoining balcony, the space below the balcony, one or two rooms of the attic and possibly part of the cellar.
He published his notations for the recital in the last Merz periodical in 1932, although he would continue to develop the piece for at least the next ten years. ==Exile, 1937–1948== ===Norway=== As the political situation in Germany under the Nazis continued to deteriorate throughout the 1930s, Schwitters' work began to be included in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) touring exhibition organised by the Nazi party from 1933.
By the time his close friends Christof and Luise Spengemann and their son Walter were arrested by the Gestapo in August 1936 the situation had clearly become perilous. On 2 January 1937 Schwitters, wanted for an "interview" with the Gestapo, fled to Norway to join his son Ernst, who had already left Germany on 26 December 1936.
The joint celebrations for his mother Henriette's 80th birthday and his son Ernst's engagement, held in Oslo on 2 June 1939, would be the last time the two met. Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in Lysaker nearby Oslo, in 1937 but abandoned it in 1940 when the Nazis invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951.
The joint celebrations for his mother Henriette's 80th birthday and his son Ernst's engagement, held in Oslo on 2 June 1939, would be the last time the two met. Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in Lysaker nearby Oslo, in 1937 but abandoned it in 1940 when the Nazis invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951.
This was almost complete when Schwitters left Norway for the United Kingdom in 1940.
The joint celebrations for his mother Henriette's 80th birthday and his son Ernst's engagement, held in Oslo on 2 June 1939, would be the last time the two met. Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in Lysaker nearby Oslo, in 1937 but abandoned it in 1940 when the Nazis invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951.
For decades this building was more or less left to rot, but measures have now been taken to preserve the interior. ===The Isle of Man=== Following Nazi Germany's invasion of Norway, Schwitters was amongst a number of German citizens who were interned by the Norwegian authorities at in Kabelvåg on the Lofoten Islands, Following his release, Schwitters fled to Leith, Scotland with his son and daughter-in-law on the Norwegian patrol vessel between 8 and 18 June 1940.
By now officially an 'enemy alien', he was moved between various internment camps in Scotland and England before arriving on 17 July 1940 in Hutchinson Camp in the Isle of Man. The camp was situated in a collection of terraced houses around Hutchinson Square in Douglas.
The camp soon comprised some 1,205 internees by end of July 1940, almost all of whom were German or Austrian.
[...] Kurt Schwitters worked with more concentration than ever during internment to stave off bitterness and hopelessness. Schwitters applied as early as October 1940 for release (with the appeal written in English: "As artist, I can not be interned for a long time without danger for my art"), but he was refused even after his fellow internees began to be released. "I am now the last artist here – all the others are free.
Kurt Schwitters in England 1940–1948, Gaberbocchus Press (1958) [includes poems and writings by Schwitters] Themerson, Stefan.
You carry your own joy with you wherever you go." Letter to Helma Schwitters, April 1941. Schwitters was finally released on 21 November 1941, with the help of an intervention from Alexander Dorner, Rhode Island School of Design. ===London=== After obtaining his freedom Schwitters moved to London, hoping to make good on the contacts that he had built up over his period of internment.
Pictures such as Small Merzpicture With Many Parts 1945-6, for example, used objects found on a beach, including pebbles and smooth shards of porcelain. In August 1942 he moved with his son to 39 Westmoreland Road, Barnes, London.
His wife Helma died of cancer on 29 October 1944, although Schwitters only heard of her death in December. ===The Lake District=== Schwitters first visited the Lake District on holiday with Edith Thomas in September 1942.
In 1943 it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid. Early photos show the Merzbau with a grotto-like surface and various columns and sculptures, possibly referring to similar pieces by Dadaists, including the Great Plasto-Dio-Dada-Drama by Johannes Baader, shown at the first International Dada Fair, Berlin, 1920.
In October 1943 he learnt that his Merzbau in Hanover had been destroyed in Allied bombing.
He exhibited in a number of galleries in the city but with little success; at his first solo exhibition at The Modern Art Gallery in December 1944, forty works were displayed, priced between 15 and 40 guineas, but only one was bought. During his years in London, the shift in Schwitters’ work continued towards an organic element that augmented the mass-produced ephemera of previous years with natural forms and muted colours.
In April 1944 he suffered his first stroke, at the age of 56, which left him temporarily paralyzed on one side of his body.
His wife Helma died of cancer on 29 October 1944, although Schwitters only heard of her death in December. ===The Lake District=== Schwitters first visited the Lake District on holiday with Edith Thomas in September 1942.
Pictures such as Small Merzpicture With Many Parts 1945-6, for example, used objects found on a beach, including pebbles and smooth shards of porcelain. In August 1942 he moved with his son to 39 Westmoreland Road, Barnes, London.
He moved there permanently on 26 June 1945, to 2 Gale Crescent Ambleside.
However, after another stroke in February of the following year and further illness, he and Edith moved to a more easily accessible house at 4 Millans Park. During his time in Ambleside Schwitters created a sequence of proto-pop art pictures, such as For Käte, 1947, after the encouragement from his friend, Käte Steinitz.
Having emigrated to the United States in 1936, Steinitz sent Schwitters letters describing life in the emerging consumer society, and wrapped the letters in pages of comics to give a flavour of the new world, which she encouraged Schwitters to ‘Merz’. In March 1947, Schwitters decided to recreate the Merzbau and found a suitable location in a barn at Cylinders Farm, Elterwater, which was owned by Harry Pierce, whose portrait Schwitters had been commissioned to paint.
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography, and what came to be known as installation art.
The last Merzbau, in Elterwater, Cumbria, England, remained incomplete on Schwitters' death in January 1948.
On 7 January 1948 he received the news that he had been granted British citizenship.
Lloyd continue to administer the estate in his will. Professor Henrick Hanstein, an auctioneer and art expert, provided key testimony in the case, stating that Schwitters was virtually forgotten after his death in exile in England in 1948, and that the Marlborough Gallery had been vital in ensuring the artist's place in art history.
It burnt down in 1951 and no photos survive.
The joint celebrations for his mother Henriette's 80th birthday and his son Ernst's engagement, held in Oslo on 2 June 1939, would be the last time the two met. Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in Lysaker nearby Oslo, in 1937 but abandoned it in 1940 when the Nazis invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951.
His grave was unmarked until 1966 when a stone was erected with the inscription Kurt Schwitters – Creator of Merz.
Kurt Schwitters on a Time-Chart in Typographica 16, December 1967, 29–48 Uhlman, Fred.
The stone remains as a memorial even though his body was disinterred and reburied in the Engesohde Cemetery in Hanover in 1970, the grave being marked with a marble copy of his 1929 sculpture Die Herbstzeitlose. ==Gallery of works== ==Posthumous reputation== ===Merzbarn=== One entire wall of the Merzbarn was removed to the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle for safe keeping.
"Alien at Ambleside", The Sunday Times Magazine, 18 Aug 1974, 27–34 Fiske, Lars and Kverneland, Steffen.
Kurt Schwitters, Thames and Hudson, London 1985. Elsner, John and Roger Cardinal (ed.), The Cultures of Collecting, Reaktion Books, London 1994. Feaver, William.
For example the main character in In the Country of Last Things is named Anna Blume. Ed Ackerman and Colin Morton's 1986 stop-action animation "Primiti Too Taa" has a soundtrack of part of "Ursonate" and visuals are spellings of the sounds done by an unseen typewriter. ==Notes== == References == Burns Gamard, Elizabeth.
. Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris (ed.) Kurt Schwitters, poems, performance, pieces, proses, play poetics, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1993. Schwitters, Kurt (ed.) Merz 1923–32.
Kurt Schwitters, Thames and Hudson, London 1985. Elsner, John and Roger Cardinal (ed.), The Cultures of Collecting, Reaktion Books, London 1994. Feaver, William.
However, Ernst fell victim to a crippling stroke in 1995, moving control of the estate as a whole to Kurt's grandson, Bengt Schwitters.
The Marlborough Gallery filed suit against the Schwitters estate in 1996, after confirming Ernst Schwitters' desire to have Mr.
Kurt Merz Schwitters, a Biographical Study, University of Wales Press 1997, Webster, Gwendolen.
Kurt Schwitters and Katherine Dreier in German Life and Letters 1999, vol.
Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau: The Cathedral of Erotic Misery, Princeton Architectural Press 2000, Cardinal, Roger and Gwendolen Webster, Kurt Schwitters, Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart, 2011.
The Triumph of Kurt Schwitters, Armitt Trust Ambleside, 2005. Elderfield, John.
"Montage and Totality: Kurt Schwitters’ relationship to tradition and avant-garde", in Dafydd Jones (ed.), Dada Culture: Critical Texts on the Avant-Garde, Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York 2006, 156–186. Hausmann, Raoul and Schwitters, Kurt; ed.
'Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau' doctoral dissertation, Open University 2007. Webster, Gwendolen.
Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau: The Cathedral of Erotic Misery, Princeton Architectural Press 2000, Cardinal, Roger and Gwendolen Webster, Kurt Schwitters, Hatje Cantz, Stuttgart, 2011.
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2011. Notz, Adrian and Obrist, Hans Ulrich (ed.), 'Processing the Complicated Order.
Jan Scott Wilkinson of the band contributed to Tate Britain's Schwitters retrospective in 2013. Tonio K dedicated the track "Merzsuite – Let Us Join Together in a Tune, Umore, Futt Futt Futt" on his album Amerika to Kurt Schwitters. American author Paul Auster uses the name Anna Blume repeatedly in his works.
PIN, Gaberbocchus Press (1962); Anabas-Verlag, Giessen (1986). Luke, Megan R., Kurt Schwitters: Space, Image, Exile, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013, McBride, Patrizia C.
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