Biography - Works - Quotes - Photos - Exhibitions - Publications - Videos
In Hanover, the Dada spirit was embodied by a single man, Kurt Schwitters, trained under the sign of expressionnism but who, as early as 1918, had renounced figurative games to create a highly personal plastic grammar, substituting all kinds of rubbish found in public garbage dumps for noble pigments. All these cast off materials were transformed by him into admirable compositions in which colours and volumes made mysterious alliances. He called these strange paintings Merzbilder (after the central syllable of Kommerzbank) and named them by numbers in chronological order of their composition.
Schwitters is the forgotten modernist. Afforded only a paragraph in many tomes and sometimes missing entirely from the chronologies that direct art-history students in a line from Impressionism to the present, the German-born Dadaist should be more than an obscurity who is perpetually rediscovered. Indeed, as a pioneer of installation art who sought to collapse the walls between painting, sculpture and the everyday detritus of a consumer society, Schwitters (June 20, 1887- January 8, 1948) has perhaps never been so vital to contemporary trends as he is today.
Kurt Schwitters: Poetry and Pictures
Poetry translated into English by Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris.
A poster designed by Kurt Schwitters and Theo van Doesburg for the "Kleine Dada Soirée," an uproarious Dada performance held in The Hague in 1922. New York, MOMA.
Kurt Schwitters: Starkbild (1919)
Kurt Schwitters: Merz
Kurt Schwitters: MerzbauGG
See Jaleh MANSOOR: Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau: The Desiring House
(Excellent article on Schwitters and Dada.)
Video on YouTube. Schwitters recorded it on May 5, 1932 in Frankfurt.
Exceptional performance of the Ursonate that can be read at the same time!
Artefact Festival, February 2007
Jaap Blonk - Voice
Golan Levin - Live titles
A comparison of the two recordings is recommended. Blonk is incredible.
Kurt Schwitters' nonsensical sound poem comes to life in H-Town with the help of a Dutch rebel
Article about Jaap Blonk's performance of the Ursonate in Houston, Kurt Schwitters, Dada and Marcel Duchamp.
Jaap Blonk Presents a Dada Work That's on Par With Duchamp and Breton
This article contains his performance of the Ursonate.
Kurt Schwitters : Cool Dada
The Economist - July 1st 1999 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne
TUCKED away in a little university art gallery in the north-east of England (the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle-upon-Tyne) is one of the least known masterpieces of 20th century art, the Merzbarn relief.
A merz can roughly be described as a "psychological collage", which contains fragments of found objects, some with autobiographical elements.
Guggenheim Collection Online
Biography of Kurt Schwitters
· About Schwitters
· Research
· Projects
· Collections
· Events
· Media
Matt Gonzales
Kurt Schwitters: Coloured Squares (1921)
Kurt Schwitters on Dear Sophie
A nice group of Schwitters paintings.
