Kurt Schwitters: Merzkunst

German painter, author, and mixed media artist Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) is regarded as one of the most significant artists of the international avant-garde. He studied art at the Dresden Academy, and created the nonsense word “Merz,” to describe his one-man artistic movement after the end of the first World War. Merz, as defined by Schwitters, is a “concept of the greatest possible unreservedness and artistic freedom in the choice forms of expression. Merz art is abstract and characterized by the way it crosses borders within the media.” 

Drawing on a wealth of rich material held by the artist’s estate, this book provides an informative introduction and overview to Schwitter’s entire Merz oeuvre, from the experimental magazine of the same name, which is celebrated as a noteworthy work of graphic design to his work on constructivism and surrealism, including aspects of painting, sculpture, and typography that were a precursor of modern installation art. Including 80 color illustrations, this book will engage fans of Schwitters work and reinvigorate interest in his innovative art.

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) is one of the most influential protagonists of the avant-garde, both as an artist and an author. With his utopia of the “total Merz vision of the world” he aimed at the “unification of art and non-art”. The art of assemblage and material art reached its first high point in his work; his “Merzbau” is regarded as a forerunner of present-day installations. “Everything was in ruins in any case, and it was a matter of rebuilding something new from the fragments. But that is MERZ.” One hundred years ago, after the end of the First World War, Kurt Schwitters declared the syllable “Merz” to be a word mark for his one-man movement and thereby propagated his wide-ranging creative work in almost all areas of art, literature and typography. The expression stands for a concept of the greatest possible unreservedness and artistic freedom in the choice of forms of expression. In Schwitters’s compositions, apparently worthless things are resurrected and open up rich fields of association in new interactions. Merz art is abstract and characterised by the way it crosses borders within the media. For example, the “Merzbau” was created in Hannover between Dada and Constructivism,. This total work of art originally extended across a number of rooms and has been reconstructed in the Sprengel Museum inHannover. The publication provides an introduction to the Merz art of Kurt Schwitters and draws on the wealth of material to be found in the artist’s estate, which is the subject of recent research. Designed by the award-winning graphic artist Marion Blomeyer.