Kurt Schwitters

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Kurt Schwitters (June 20, 1887 - January 8, 1948) was a German painter who was born in Hannover, Germany.

Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, collage, sculpture, typography and what came to be known as installation art.

Contents

[edit] Biography and art

Though not a direct participant in Dada activities, he employed Dada ideas in his work, such as his Merz works — art pieces built up of found objects; some were very small, some took the form of large constructions, or what would later in the 20th century be called installations. The Sprengel Museum in Hanover has a reconstruction of the best known of these installations, called Merzbau, which was a redesign of at least four rooms in Schwitters's house in Hanover. (These were not in his apartment, but on the ground floor, in the attic and possibly in the basement.) The original Merzbau was destroyed in an air raid during World War II. According to Schwitters, merz is derived from the name of the Commerzbank; the word is also notably similar to the French word merde, which translated into English as "shit."

A story is told, but untrue, that he attempted to join the network of Dada artists, only to be rejected by the leader of the Berlin movement, Richard Huelsenbeck, on the premise that Schwitters was "too bourgeois" for Dada. A 2005 exposition on Dada at the Centre Georges Pompidou further acknowledged Schwitters as a member of the larger movement by devoting an entire section to the exhibition of some of his work (Ramade 2005).

Thanks to Schwitters' lifelong patron and friend Katherine Dreier, his work was exhibited regularly in the USA from 1920 onwards. Schwitters published his own Merz magazine from 1923-32 and in the late 1920s became a well-known typographer; his best-known work was the catalogue for the Dammerstocksiedlung in Karlsruhe. From 1924 he ran an advertising agency called Merzwerbe, and in the late 1920s was the official typographer of Hannover town council. He became a member of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) in the late 1920s.

In January 1937 Schwitters fled to Norway, and in the same year, his Merz pictures were included in the Nazi exhibition of degenerate art (entartete Kunst) in Munich. Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in Oslo, Norway in 1937 but abandoned it in 1940 when the Nazis invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951. His hut on the Norwegian island of Hjertoya, near Molde, is also frequently regarded as a Merzbau.

Schwitters fled to England, and was initially interned in Douglas Camp, Isle of Man. He spent time in London, then in 1945 moved to the Lake District, where, in 1947, he began work on the last Merzbau, which he called the Merzbarn. One wall of this last structure is now in the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle; the shell of the barn remains in Elterwater, near Ambleside.

He composed and performed an early example of sound poetry, Ursonate (1922-32; a translation of the title is Original Sonata). Schwitters also authored the poem An Anna Blume.

The sound recordings made by Schwitters in 1932 of both Ursonate and An Anna Blume can be heard on the audio CD Voices of Dada.

Schwitters died in Kendal, England, and was buried in Ambleside. His grave was unmarked until 1966 when a stone was erected with the inscription Kurt Schwitters – Creator of Merz. The stone remains as a memorial even though his body was later disinterred and reburied in Hannover, Germany, the grave being marked with a marble copy of his 1929 sculpture Die Herbstzeitlose.

[edit] Marlborough Gallery Controversy

Schwitters' son, Ernst, largely entrusted the artistic estate of his father to Gilbert Lloyd, director of the Marlborough Gallery in Oslo, Norway. However, Ernst fell victim to a crippling stroke in 1995, moving control of the estate as a whole to Kurt's grandson, Bengt Schwitters. Controversy erupted when Bengt, who has said he has "no interest in art and his grandfather's works," terminated the standing agreement between the family and the Marlborough Gallery. The Marlborough Gallery filed suit against the Schwitters estate in 1996, after confirming Ernst Schwitters' desire to have Mr. 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. The verdict, which was eventually upheld by Norway's highest court, awarded the gallery USD 2.6 million in damages. [1]

[edit] Archival and Forgeries

Schwitters' visual work has now been completely catalogued in the Catalogue Raisonne. Forgeries of collages by Schwitters turn up almost weekly on eBay. Before purchasing any work supposedly by Schwitters, it is best to consult the Kurt Schwitters Archive at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany.

[edit] Legacy

  • Brian Eno sampled Schwitters recording of Ursonate for the "Kurt's Rejoinder" track on his 1977 album, Before and after Science.
  • Japanese musician Merzbow took his name from Schwitters.
  • Canadian poet Colin Morton wrote a book of poetry inspired by Schwitters and a play based on it.
  • A fictionalised account of Schwitters's time in London is the subject of an opera by Michael Nyman, Man and Boy: Dada.
  • Big City Orchestra has performed several of Schwitters plays including "Dramatic Scene" and "Pastoral Play"
  • Canadian composer Christopher Butterfield has performed Ursonate multiple times. He recorded the work at the National Research Council of Canada in 1979.
  • The German hip-hop band Freundeskreis quoted from his poem "An Anna Blume" in their hit single "ANNA".
  • The British indie rock band British Sea Power play parts of Ursonate between songs while playing live.

[edit] External links

[edit] Sound art

[edit] References

Fred Uhlman: The Making of an Englishman, Gollancz (1960), has some interesting biographical and anecdotal details about Schwitters during his internment at Douglas, Isle of Man. Uhlman was a co-internee.

Ramade, Bénédicte. (2005) Dada: L'exposition/The Exhibition, Union-Distribution. ISBN 2844262783

Webster, Gwendolen, Kurt Merz Schwitters, a Biographical Study, University of Wales Press 1997, ISBN 0-7083-1438-4

  1. ^ Alexander, Leslie. "Marlborough Vindicated". Art & Antiques April 2001: 38.
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