Schwitters, Kurt Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was born in 1887 in Hanover, Germany. His work involved many different medias: poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as installation art. His work can be considered examples of constructivism and surrealism, however Schwitter considered himself mainly a progresser of Dada art. But when he was denied entry into the Dada group in Berlin he worked to create a new movement: Merz. The above collage is a demonstrative example of Merz art.
The Dada movement began as a reaction to the First World War, based in neutral Switzerland, and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The work inhaled anti-war politics. Angry, with what was happening within the world, the artists rejected standard, traditional approaches and produced anti-art cultural works. Refusing to accept what was happening without protest. Challenging the existing, accepted and admired definitions of art. They wanted to be ridiculed to be anarchistic.
Art plays a large part in a countries cultural identity, often supported by government funding, it is a valuable form politicians can flaunt (especially in times of war when legal tender loses value and any form of positive propaganda is a bonus.) For artist to present work which was bad, was the most productive way they could protest against the unprecedented horror of war, or in the artists opinion: 'meaninglessness of the modern world' Tate Gallery London. The movement involved visual arts, public gatherings, literature, poetry, demonstrations, art manifestoes, publicity, theory, theatre and graphic design. The movement natural spread internationally and eventually provided a platform form which the next generation of artists (surrealists) grew.
Schwitters was an enthusiast and devoted to the Dada movement, he agreed with anti-art cultural work and rebelling against the war; his work proved this, it was connected to society. When the war was over and the protest against it complete his work could progress, this progression was Merz, started in Hanover in 1919. From 1918, Germany was a complete mess: economically, politically and the military had collapsed. No one was unaffected by the war, with the vast death and destruction people were left unorganised and weak.
His own movement, Merz, was the artists contribution to portraying the collective mess that the world was left with. He described his work, at the time, in the following sentence:
"In the war, things were in terrible turmoil. What I had learned at the academy was of no use to me and the useful new ideas were still unready.... Everything had broken down and new things had to be made out of the fragments; and this is Merz. It was like a revolution within me, not as it was, but as it should have been." Kurt Schwitters. He collages and assembled, scavenging scrap materials, making large assemblages, small collages, using a medium that beautifully portrayed recovery. Even the name was part of his reconstructions; it was said he extracted the word Merz from the name Commerz Bank which appeared on a piece of paper in one of his collages.
Schwitters, Kurt
Picture of Spatial Growth - Picture with Two Small Dogs
Schwitter started the assemblage titled: Picture of Spatial Growth - Picture with Two Small Dogs, in 1920 in Germany. It consisted of an assortment of items: discarded rubbish, used postcards, packaging, postcards, bus tickets and printed ephemera; all of which were attached to a board.
In 1937 some of his work were then included in the Degenerate Art exhibition, curated by the Nazis in Munih, it consisted of modernist artworks hung chaotically, accompanied by degrading text labels. The exhibition was designed to inflame public opinion against modernism. The Artist included were in great danger and wanted by the government.
Shwitters fled Nazi Germany and went to Norway. From there the art work was given a new direction. He added layers of Norwegian material more: theatre tickets, receipts, newspaper cuttings, scraps of lace, and a box with two china dogs. Layered in a balanced abstract compositions, fragmented but meaningful.
The different layers of collage reflect the artist's journey. A movement in exile. A beautiful example of urban civilization and the extremes of life during the second world war. All composed in what the Tate Gallery describes as 'detritus in a highly ordered composition' Tate London
Schwitters, KurtMerzbau
He later created Merz Buildings (Merzbau. )The first was within his own house in Germany, which he filled with about forty 'grottoes' constructions attached to the interior fabrics of the building. They extended trailing throughout the house even poking out the windows. In 1937 His work was destroyed.
Schwitters fled Germany for Norway. There he continued his work, creating a second Merzbau but this again was destroyed, this time by fire. In 1940 he finally found refuge in England where he started a third Merzbau, but left unfinished, now preserved in the Hatton Gallery of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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