Was Kurt Schwitters a Dadaist?
Candidate number: 000212-024
Name: Heekyung Kim
International Community School
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Date: December 2012
Subject: Visual Arts
Word Count: 4000
Abstract
In this essay, significant pieces of Kurt Schwitters’ artworks will be analyzed to
answer the question: “was Kurt Schwitters a Dadaist?”
The starting point of the essay will be the examination of the Dada movement. Dada
movement will be examined to define features of Dada artworks, which will be used as
standards in evaluating Kurt Schwitters’ artworks. This section will explain the attributes of
Dada movement and the reasons behind the features in relation to the society at that time.
Throughout the essay, Kurt Schwitters’ Merz collages, landscape paintings, Ursonate,
his sound poem, and Merzbau, an architectural installation art piece, will be examined in
comparison with features of Dadaist artworks. Kurt Schwitters’ artworks will be analyzed
and then be evaluated to see if they meet the characteristics of Dadaist art. A lot of the
comparisons will focus on the intentions behind certain features such as dissociation, rather
than similarity of aesthetic properties.
The conclusion of the essay will state that Kurt Schwitters was not fully a Dadaist,
considering the intentions and purpose behind his artworks, although Dadaism stylistically
influenced him. Moreover it will state that Kurt Schwitters was a “Meta-Dadaist,” who
absorbed diverse artistic styles from various art movements, which allowed him to create his
own art movement Merz. In all, I will conclude that Kurt Schwitters was a true avant-garde
artist in the sense that Merz movement parallels to the ideas of total art of modern art.
In the investigation of this essay, I utilized academic journals, major books by art
historians such as John Elderfield, Roger Cardinal, and Gwendolen Webster, and attempted
to seek advice from experts who had studied Kurt Schwitters artworks.
Word count: 275
Table of Contents
Introduction
1-2
What is Dada?
3-5
Merz to Schwitters
Merz Collages:!Metamorphosis of Materials
6
7-9
Landscapes: Abstract Brushstrokes
10-14
Ursonate: the Primitive Sound Poem
15-17
Merzbau: Epitome of Merz
18-19
Conclusion
20
Bibliography
21
Image Bibliography
22-30
Appendix 1: Kurt Schwitters’ Biography
31-33
Appendix 2: Letter to Expert
34-35
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Introduction
My first encounter of Kurt Schwitters was during a research on German Dadaism. A
lot of the art archives and museums categorized his artwork as Dada and identified him as a
“German Dada artist and poet” (“Kurt Schwitters”). Interestingly, a lot of the sources had
diverging accounts of his life and artworks. There were some that claimed that Merz, his oneman art movement, was invented due to the “reject[ion] by [Berlin] Dada” and that Merz was
“his own form of Dada” (Cardinal and Webster 18; Alley 676). On the other hand, some
asserted that he was not a Dadaist. Thus left with many perspectives on his artworks and art
career, I aspired to investigate further on his artworks and determine myself whether Kurt
Schwitters was a Dadaist.
Kurt Schwitters remains quite unknown compared to Dada artists of his time such as
Jean Arp. As a lot of his artworks were all “destroyed or lost from sight” in his exile from
Nazi Germany to Norway and Britain, not a lot of records remain about Schwitters, making it
harder for art historians to study and for people to appreciate his artworks (Cardinal and
Webster 40).
Moreover, due to his exile, as Hans Richter points out during the lamentation of Kurt
Schwitters, he died “unrecognized and in poverty and exile” with “his
reputation…disappeared” (Elderfield 224). He only started to gain publications on his art
from late 1950s when Dadaism was getting new recognition for its influence in contemporary
art (Elderfield 224). In addition, compared to his contemporaries who chose to immigrate to
United States, Kurt Schwitters remained in Europe, suffering restrictions to his art career
imposed by the Nazi regime.
Kurt Schwitters’ art career took place in the same time period and location with
German Dadaism, and he held strong relationships with Dadaists. His collages and
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assemblages were influenced by his Dadaist associations and superficially appear similar to
the styles of Dada. However to what extent he followed the art movement is questionable.
Even for the critics, “Schwitters’ work[s were] unsettling…because it evaded any clear-cut
category” (Cardinal and Webster 17).
As a result, claims such as Kurt Schwitters is a Dadaist, professed from his time
continues to be held in belief till today. Although there are no accounts of him declaring
himself a Dadaist, he is classified as German Dadaist in most of the art archives and
appreciated for his Dada artworks. Hence, throughout the essay I will address if his Merz
movement, which people are inclined to classify as Dada, can be bind as Dadaism or rather a
movement of his own, through the comparisons of artistic features of his life long works with
those of the Dadaist.
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What is Dada?
Before exploring if Kurt Schwitters’ was a Dadaist, it is important to define what
Dadaism is and what its characteristics are that Dadaist proclaim, as those are the
fundamental guidance used for the final judgment.
FIG 1 Map of Spreading of Dadaism
Dadaism was a movement that started in Zurich in 1916 and it spread to Berlin,
Cologne, Hannover, New York, and Paris. To begin with Dadaism was not “a movement in
the visual arts,” but a social movement (Elderfield 225). It started in a small cabaret dubbed
Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Swiss, where a lot of expatriates, who had fled their countries to
escape the war, gathered (Hofmann). They united under the idea of abhorrence of World War
I, which they believed was caused from the rationality of the Bourgeois, and named their
tenet Dada. Going against Bourgeois ideology of reason and logic, they instead went under
the belief of chance and irrationality.
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Dadaist thoughts on the repugnance of war gained popularity among artists. With
increasing artists identifying themselves as Dadaist, Dadaism soon transmuted as an art
movement. They were strictly against traditional forms of art as they associated them with the
bourgeois. Therefore, conventional standards such as the emphasis of aesthetics, and artists’
control of “circumscribed medium as the source of esthetic value and the moral center of art”
were elements Dadaist attacked (Elderfield 227). To Dadaists “image content was more
important than style” as art was “a way of transmitting messages” (Elderfield 227-8). Dada
was “the means for making art, art which is not dada, but the result of it” (Elderfield 230).
Dadaist saw Dada as an “anti-art movement.”
Dadaist viewed art as “not an end in itself…but…an opportunity for the true
perception and criticism of the times [they] live[d] in” (“Introduction”). They wanted to “blur
[out] the boundaries between art and life” and utilize art to criticize the world rather than to
escape from reality through aesthetical means (“Introduction”). As Huelsenbeck, the founder
of Berlin Dada, puts it, Dada was “a critique of the self, the self always reflecting society”
(Elderfield 225). Schwitters also described Dadaist as “mirror carrier[s]” who “reflect[ed] the
conditions” of the modern world (Elderfield 235).
FIG 2 Mechanical Head
FIG 3 The Art Critic
FIG 4 Gift
Hence, they utilized “shock tactics of their own” to portray their shock from the
“modernity” of machines used in World War I and the modern media (“Introduction”). The
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“shock tactics” were the development of “techniques such as collage, assemblage,
photomontage,” and ready-mades and public performances (Cardinal and Webster 7). All of
these productions utilized everyday objects such as newspaper, magazines, and
advertisements, which symbolized the fusion between art and everyday life.
Although Kurt Schwitters was influenced by many of their techniques such as collage
and assemblages as an artist living in the same time-period as Dadaist, who brought vast
change in art, his ideas and intentions behind his artworks do not match with that of Dadaist.
Rather Kurt Schwitters had his own ideology and “designat[ed] personal strategy” which he
coins as Merz (Cardinal and Webster 11).
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Merz to Schwitters
FIG 5 Merz
FIG 6 Cover of Merz Magazine
Kurt Schwitters coined Merz in 1919 as a word to describe his exhibition at Sturm
gallery. The word Merz was the “second syllable of Kommerz [commerce]” “from the
advertisement [of] KOMMERZ-UND PRIVATEBANK [Commercial and Private
Bank],”which he had “cut-out and glued-on” to his Merzbild or Merz Picture (Elderfield 12).
Merz to Kurt Schwitters was a “generic term” to define his new art form which he could not
define with “older concepts like Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism or whatever” (Elderfield
13). He gradually expanded the usage of the word Merz to describe his artworks as well as
poetry activity, but later in life he “call[ed] [him]self MERZ” as “Merz ha[d] become a way
of understanding the world” to Schwitters (Elderfield 13; Cardinal and Webster 11).
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Merz C ollages: Metamorphosis of Materials
Kurt Schwitters defined himself as: “‘I am a painter, I nail my picture together’ in
reference to his collage making” (Cardinal and Webster 39). To him collages were his form
of response to the war like the Dadaist. However, Schwitters’ collages differed and were
unique from that of the Dadaist by his usage of materials.
Dadaist believed the context of art to be more important than the visual or the
aesthetics of art. Therefore medium of the art for Dadaist was insignificant; what mattered the
most was the message. However, to Schwitters medium was core to his art; he “found
inspiration in…mediums that he had made his own” (Elderfield 227).
When comparing the ready-made of Duchamp and the collages of Kurt Schwitters,
the different perspective of Dada and Merz towards medium can be seen. First of all, the
message they derive from the medium differs greatly. Although both utilized everyday
objects in their art, Duchamp through the usage of everyday objects in his ready-made
attempts to convey the message that new form of art can go beyond art where as Schwitters
through his collage materials show that new kind of art goes “beyond painting but never
beyond art” (Elderfield 235).
Despite their different messages, they both go under the same procedure of
“dissociation” with their mediums to “de-formulate” its original function and to generate a
new purpose in one’s art (Elderfield 235). Their intentions for the procedure, however, differ.
Duchamp goes through “dissociation” to isolate the medium for “visual indifference” (as he
puts it), with minimum amount of deformation of the medium, where as Schwitters’ goes
through “dissociation” of the medium, through “handling the pieces,” to eradicate all traces
of origin for the “association with other similarly dissociated objects” (Elderfield 235;
Cardinal and Webster 40).
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FIG 7 Fountain
FIG 8 Merzbild 46a
Schwitters’ medium for his collages was collection of diverse materials that he could
find. He believed “everything was wrecked anyway, and what counted was to construct
something new from the broken pieces”(Cardinal and Webster 39). He explains in his 1919
essay “Merzmalerei” that “Merz…means the bringing-together of all imaginable materials for
artistic purposes as well as…the recognition…that all individual materials have the same
value” (Cardinal and Webster 44). He strongly believed in Entformung or metamorphosis, as
John Elderfield attempts to translate, of objects that do not belong to art; he aspired to turn
these objects into something “undeniably to the realm of art” (Cardinal and Webster 40).
Thus Schwitters “separates” from Dadaist in that his “concerns for tangible, durable works of
art and his… distrust of an art of mere ideas” (Elderfield 226).
Moreover, Schwitters, unlike the Dadaist, did not put his means of art to criticize the
world, but he merely put his intentions in portraying the present. In other words, Schwitters
“made the present the very subject of his art” (Elderfield 229). A lot of his artworks can be
referred to as “modernist memento mori” where the painter suggests passive reading to his
artworks (Elderfield 237). Through the indirect usage of quotes and words cut out from
scraps, his collage tones down his voice and rather “tells the world in the tone of melancholy
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and past tense” (Elderfield 237). As he merely depicts the present, he guides the readers but
does not directly state his credence.
FIG 9 Merz Picture 10A/L Merz Picture L4/ Construction for Noble Ladies
For example, in his collage Merz Picture 10A/ L Merz Picture L4 (Construction for
Noble Ladies) the viewers have to suspect the meaning of the collage through inferring upon
collage’s elements. The collage has various wheels, broken pram or a child’s toy, several
metal discs, circular machine parts, scattered tin-plated tacks, splotches of paint, which is
incorporated in many Schwitters’ artworks for harmony of the collage, and a small white card
that states “Fahradkarate Riethagen,” which is a bicycle voucher of a village north of
Hanover. Although, all these elements may seem unrelated, when putting together the entire
constituent, Schwitters hints us “to read the entire picture as the memento of a cycling trip”
(Cardinal and Webster 44). Like this collage, many of his collages merely depict the present
with a distance voice with no direct voicing of meaning, which contrasts to the bold nature of
Dadaist.
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Landscapes: Abstract Brushstrokes
Kurt Schwitters had never abandoned painting figurative landscapes or portraits up to
his death in 1948. As Merz was neither naturalistic nor abstract Schwitters never relinquished
either of them but rather merged the two into his artwork (Elderfield 13). He points out that
“two painters live in [him], a painter of nature and a painter of the abstract” and that the two
always fight to gain influence over his painting style, which allows him to incorporate the
two styles (Cardinal and Webster 21).
He emphasized the importance of naturalistic painting to his art as he learned
measurement and adjustment of “variable but finite number of pictorial elements” through it
(Elderfield 13). Schwitters points out that “this conception [of adjustment] forms a bridge
between his earlier work, where the manipulation was a means to an end [for accurate
representation], and the later, purely formal, manipulation of found materials in the
Merzbilder” (Elderfield 13).
FIG 10 G Expression 1
FIG 11 G Expression 2
During his experimental period before the invention of Merz in 1918, we can observe
Schwitters’ development of abstract techniques through his landscape paintings. Although
none of them survive till today, there are photographs of G Expression 1 (Der Wald or the
Forest), and G Expression 2 (Die Sonne im Hocgebirge or Sun in the High Mountains) that
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can be referred to. When analyzing Der Wald, the painting moves away from the precise
depiction of nature to abstraction where the trees branches spread across the whole painting
with liner patterns. It shows his experimentation with lines as a way of expression. Moreover,
Die Sonne im Hocegbirge similarly shows Schwitters’ deployment of abstraction through the
broken surface of the atmosphere divided by colors. It once again shows his experimentation
with colors and the study of color’s expressive character. In all, the “line, form and color and
every combination of these,” which later becomes the “principle in Schwitters’ art,” can be
seen through the two paintings (Elderfield 19). As he himself lays it out, “the individualized
and specialized observation of nature now gives way to an increasingly objective and
theoretical study of the picture and its laws” (Elderfield 19).
FIG 12 Lake Djupvand with Snow
FIG 13 Glacier under Snow
In the later years of his career, during his exile in Norway, Schwitters’ painting of
landscape increased as landscape became a source of income. It still influenced and
developed his Merz style; now through landscape painting he investigated on his new interest
in “illusionistic space and organic, curvilinear elements” associated with 1950s Surrealism
(Elderfield 201). Paintings such as Lake Djupvand with Snow (1938) and Glacier under Snow
(1937) show “extreme generalization (contrasting to accurate portrayals) of
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location…through site’s basic natural shapes” (Cardinal and Webster 94). In Lake Djupvand
with Snow, it has free-flowing brush stokes in the hue gray to outline the curve of the
mountains from the vast snowfield. Similarly in Glacier under Snow the brush strokes
become more free-flowing and contour smoothly around the natural space and shapes of the
scenery. Elderfield describes the landscape painting during Schwitters’ Norway exile period
as “landscape [generalized] in fluid, atmospheric brushwork” (Elderfield 201).
FIG 14 Merzbild Alf
In the small assemblage, Merzbild Alf (1939), contains components of a mussel shell,
feather, a fragment of coral, a leaf, a flower, scarp of print bearing the word Alf, and a small
metal ring (Cardinal and Webster 101). Through the small assemblage the application of the
elements that Schwitters learned from nature can be seen. The background of the assemblage
is in illusionistic forms and painted in “atmospheric brush” strokes. Moreover, the wooden
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eyes in the background (the round black splotches in the background) illustrates the “blatant
shapes” and the “organic forms” of the wood material employed into the assemblages, and
the brown scarp of print bearing the word Alf at the bottom are camouflaged with the woods,
alluding to the “basic natural” forms (Elderfield 201). Lastly, the assemblage has “breathing
space” between the elements, which is a characteristic that Kurt Schwitters applied to his
later works in life (Elderfield 201).
FIG 15
FIG 16
Schwitters, in 1922 Merz exhibition in Hildesheim, “made the point of showing both
his conventional paintings and his abstracts to illustrate his unbroken development from
genre painter to Merz artist,” which provided the viewers a “juxtaposition of Merz and
‘proper art’” (Cardinal and Webster 19). Thus in a way landscape painting was a way to
distinguish himself from Dada, which he was roundly associated to and to establish a firm
image of his art movement Merz. In addition, landscape paintings can be interpreted as
“Schwitters’ hobby, a relaxing alternative to the more provocative productions of Merz”
(Cardinal and Webster 90).
Merz to Kurt Schwitters was not a total break from the past, or an “iconoclastic
gesture against earlier painting, including his own” but was rather the end result, the
accumulation of the earlier forming (Elderfield 13). As he writes later on his life, he “can
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never give up or entirely forget a period of time which [he] worked with great energy—[he
is] still an impressionist even while [he is] Merz” (Elderfield 18). This is what really breaks
Schwitters from the Dadaist, who as stated above, attacked conventional art forms in
iconoclastic behaviors, denouncing its importance of existence, and abandoning painting in
conventional art styles. However, Schwitters in reverse gained inspirations from producing
conventional art such as landscape and applied those inspirations to his abstract artworks.
Therefore, to Schwitters, conventional art was a factor that cannot be detached, making him
less of a Dadaist.
Moreover, Schwitters’ family and art educational background show his strong
relationship with conventional art. His parents being owners of a fashion shop in the town
center, he was brought up being part of the bourgeois society. Thus unlike many Dadaist,
who were not part of bourgeois, he had no particular aggression towards bourgeois and their
conventional art as his background related to them. Moreover, studying in college of Applied
Arts Hanover and Royal Academy of Art of Dresden, receiving awards for his distinctive
artworks, and earning a chance to exhibit at Kunstverein Hannover, one of Germany’s
prestige art galleries, he was greatly part of the conventional art society. Hence it is dubious
to say he went against the conventional art like the Dadaist, who heavily condemned and
abandoned it.
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Ursonate: the Primitive Sound Poem
Kurt Schwitters is renowned for his sound poem Ursonate and most of the sources
illustrate him as one of the most prominent Dada poets of his time. However to what extent
Ursonate can be categorized, as Dada poetry is dubious. Although, Ursonate appears to be
symmetrical with other Dada poems in appearance, it, like Schwitters’ visual artworks, holds
asymmetrical forms that differ from Dada poetry.
Ursonate is indicated as an archetype of a Dadaist poetry and performance as it is
viewed as dealing “close to thought and action” with minimal or no material fabrication, a
Dadaist belief (Elderfield 227). Considering Schwitters’ strong penchant for absorbing
surrounding, and the fact that he was highly interested in Dada poetry at that time, Ursonate
can be reflected as having Dadaist characteristic of “fus[ing] art and life” (Elderfield 227).
However, when considering factors of Dada poetry put forth by Tristan Tzara, one of
the key leaders of the Dadaist movement, Ursonate lacks the key features of Dada poetry.
Tzara claims Dada poetry as a “writing that comes from one’s subconscious.” His manuscript
to how “To Make a Dadaist Poem” illustrates that Dada poetry should have elements of antiart or anti-bourgeois art by including methods of chance and writing out of strict form. Tzara
wanted Dada poetry to shock people with its eccentricity of rejecting existing forms of
poetry.
Ursonate did shock people with its eccentricity. As Kate T. Streinitz puts in her
memoir of Kurt Schwitters, a “high officer in uniform, at first [was] bewildered, [and] stiff”
at Schwitters’ performance of Ursonate (Streinitz 200). However, she recounts that at the end
of the performance, audience was infested with laughter, “appuld[ing] emphatically”
(Streinitz 200). Streinitz sees the significance of Schwitters’ performance as “impos[ing] his
presence on the audience,” like the idea of “modernist memento mori” of his artworks
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(Streinitz 200). It is interesting to point out that Schwitters viewed art as “self-absorption,”
where “art does not try to influence one or be effective, but to liberate one from life”
(Elderfield 117). This applies to Ursonate, as it was a “self-deprecating parody”; it was not
intended to accuse society’s faults like the Dadaist, but it was merely intended to portray
himself to the audience.
FIG 17 Merz 24. Ursonate.
Typography by Jan Tschinchold.
FIG 18 Karawane by Hugo Ball
Moreover, Ursonate does not confine to the writing out of strict form and chance.
Schwitters instead “flaunted [Ursonate’s] similarity to late eighteenth-century sonata form,”
indulging in the bourgeois culture that Dadaist “aimed to enrage” (Cardinal and Webster 119).
Ursonate illustrates “a tight, controlled composition” with “scrupulous approach to form”
(Cardinal and Webster 121). Schwitters’ believed new art could be derived from other old
forms of art such as a structure of a sonata, like his inspirations from landscape paintings.
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Furthermore, like his collages, Ursonate also went under “dissociation” of materials.
Although, Ursonate in general does not include dissociation of physical materials, Ursonate
dissociates the key material of poetry, language. Schwitters picks up “primal sounds” and
“ordinary words (Dedesnn nn rrrrr is a modification of “Dresden,” for instance)” from life,
which he modifies to compose Ursonate, thus fusing life into art (Cardinal and Webster 121).
This shows that the idea of “minimal or no material fabrication” aspect of the Dada poetry,
does not apply to Ursonate and hence, that Ursonate is not a Dada poetry.
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Merzbau: Epitome of Merz
FIG 19 Hannover Merzbau
FIG 20 Hannover Merzbau
Merzbau is an “abstract sculpture into which people can go into”; in today’s word, it is
an installation artwork (Cardinal and Webster 73). It is an artwork in an “everyday
environment,” outside of galleries and museums, with “interactive, hybrid sites that allow for
diverse input,” and “open to… interpretations” (Cardinal and Webster 82). It is the epitome
of Kurt Schwitters’ Merz belief; it shows all the aspects of his Merz belief and styles that he
assimilated throughout his art career.
Merzbau to Kurt Schwitters was a “single great
sculpture” that had “each part of the
interior…intermediary…to its neighboring parts” and a
“flowing structure” that influenced the viewers by
directing them to their own “imaginary plans” with the
directions and movements of the constructed surfaces
FIG 21 Cathedral of Erotic Misery
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(Cardinal and Webster 73). It was interactive and different from artworks of the previous art
movements. He even “denies” Kathedrale des erotischen Elends (Cathedral of Erotic Misery)
or KdeE, a studio column created from his “stock piles of debris,” which was a prototype of
Merzbau, “[to be] Dada, Cubist, [or] Gothic” in the manifesto Ich und meine Ziele (Myself
and My Aims) from his last issue of Merz magazine (Cardinal and Webster 70).
Merzbau was “constructed around worthless and fragmentary materials”, and the
dissociation of these materials, a unique method of Kurt Schwitters, illustrated the Merz
belief (Cardinal and Webster 82). Merzbau was a “private universe” or even “escapism”
created for him but it was “built [out of] and modeled upon the world outside,” referring to
the everyday object he used as material (Elderfield 238). To Schwitters, the materials “served
as emblems of himself” as the process of dissociation gave personal attachment to the
materials. Thus, Merzbau was an artwork that “captur[ed] and possess[ed]” himself in the
context of the world and a way to express himself like the Ursonate (Elderfield 238).
Merzbau expressed Schwitters in the context of the world, yet it was not a condemnation of
the world like Dada.
The materials were important not only in portraying Schwitters himself, but also in
expressing the ultimate message of Merz. The absorption of the fragments to the whole of
Merzbau portrayed, the message of “establishing relationships, best of all between all the
things in the world” (Cardinal and Webster 82). The message is unique of Kurt Schwitters’
Merz and objects to the anti-society motif of Dada.
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C onclusion
Was Kurt Schwitters a Dadaist? There are no questions to if Dadaism influenced
Kurt Schwitters or not as Dadaism was an influence in Schwitters’ artistic career. Whether
the Dadaist influence was an intentional choice of Kurt Schwitters or a reluctant influence
from his surrounding and era is what determines if he was a Dadaist or not. Yet, considering
his artistic intensions in collages and his strong attachment to conventional paintings, I
believe that Kurt Schwitters was not a Dadaist; although, his artworks may have features
alike to Dada, he did not follow or truly believe in the elements of Dada to be classified as a
Dadaist.!
Instead, Kurt Schwitters had his own movement, Merz. Merz is the accumulation of all
the stylistic features he had garnered over his artistic career, which consist of Dadaism. Merz
to Schwitters was Gesamtkunstwerk: a way to define all his artworks and a way to collaborate
all of his thoughts in art. It is a mass of his interpretation towards each art movement. The
acme of his artwork, Merzbau, shows the epoch expression of his Merz belief through its
existence as a house of installation artworks with all of his artworks, such as the Ursonate
(sound poem), combined. Merzbau is what we call total art, an assimilation of all kinds of
medium for expression.
Thus, the Merz movement can be viewed as a pioneer to modern art: it is an
assimilation of many art movements of his time. Schwitters extracted aspects from each art
movement and processed it into his own. Therefore, Kurt Schwitters is a “Meta-Dadaist”: to
some extent a Dadaist, but not, at the same time, as his artworks are “antipathetic to Dada”
with complexity and contradictory running through his own one-man movement, Merz
(Humphreys).
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Works C ited
Alley, Ronald. Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by
British Artists. London: Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 1981. p.676. Web. 26
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Cardinal, Roger and Gwendolen Webster. Kurt Schwitters. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2011.
Print.
Elderfield, John. Kurt Schwitters. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987. Print.
Hofmann, Irene. “Documents of Dada and Surrealism: Dada and Surrealist Journals in the
Mary Reynolds Collection.” The Art Institute of Chicago: Ryerson and Burnham
Libraries. 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann.php>
Humphreys, Richard. “About This Artists.” Oxford University Press. 2009. Web. 30 May.
2012. <!http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=5293>
“Introduction.” Dada. National Gallery of Art, 2012. Web. 28 May. 2012.
<!http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/cities/index.shtm>
“Kurt Schwitters.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia
Britannia Inc., 2012. Web. 26 May. 2012.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/528720/Kurt-Schwitters>
Steinitz, Kate T. “Kurt Schwitters: A Portrait from Life.” Comparative Literature
Studies 12.3, Media and Society: Montage, Satire, and Cultism between the
Wars (September 1975): 199-217. JSTOR. Web. 13 Sep.2012.
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Image Bibliography
Title Page:
Created by Heekyung Kim through digital modification of Dada collages and Kurt
Schwitters’ artworks.
Photo of Kurt Schwitters:
“Portrait of Kurt Schwitters by El Lissitzky.” Asitougttobe.com. 27 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Nov.
2012. < http://asitoughttobe.com/2011/11/27/kurt-schwitters/>
Hugo Ball:
“Hugo Ball in 'cubist costume' reciting his poem 'Elefantenkarawane' at the Cabaret Voltaire,
23 June 1916.”Dada-companion.com. 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.dada-companion.com/ball/>
Marshal Duchamp’s “Fountain”:
“Marcel Duchamp.” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
< http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/mduchamp.shtm>
Wat Dada:
“Cover of ‘What is Dada’.” Wikipaintings.org. n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/theo-van-doesburg/cover-of-what-is-dada-1923>
Question Mark:
“George Grosz.” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/berlin.shtm#null>
Hitler:
“Menschen Mit Kopf -Humans With Brains-/Erwin Blumenfeld 1921.” SanderSteins. 18 Jan.
2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<http://blog.sandersteins.com/2012/01/erwin-blumenfeld-dada-montages-19161933/>
Dada:
“Der Dada No.2-Cover.” The University of Iowa Liberies. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<!http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/derdada/2/pages/00cover.htm>
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Merz:
“The Merz’s Cover.” Luala. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<!http://luala.vn/?cat=1&subcat=188&pid=29150&lang=en>
“Merz.” Luala. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<!http://luala.vn/?cat=1&subcat=188&pid=29150&lang=en>
Hand:
“Merz No.2 Cover.” The University of Iowa Liberies. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<!http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/merz/2/pages/00cover.htm>!
Is:
“Cover of ‘What is Dada’.” Wikipaintings.org. n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/theo-van-doesburg/cover-of-what-is-dada-1923>
Figure 1:
Map of Spreading of Dadaism (created by Heekyung Kim)
“Map of Europe.” WorldAtlas. n.d Web. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/eu.htm>
“Map of America.” D-maps.com. 2012. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://d-maps.com/pays.php?num_pay=119&lang=en>
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Figure 2:
“Raoul Hausmann.” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/assemblage.shtm#null>
Figure 3:
“Raoul Hausmann.” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/photomontage.shtm#null>
Figure 4:
“Man Ray.” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<!http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/readymades.shtm#null>
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Figure 5:
“Merz.” Luala. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<!http://luala.vn/?cat=1&subcat=188&pid=29150&lang=en>
Figure 6:
“The Merz’s Cover.” Luala. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<!http://luala.vn/?cat=1&subcat=188&pid=29150&lang=en>
Figure 7:
“Marcel Duchamp.” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 30 May. 2012.
<!http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/mduchamp.shtm>
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Figure 8:
“Kurt Schwitters” National Gallery of Art. 2012. Web. 30 May. 2012.
<http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/artwork/schwitters.shtm#null>
Figure 9:
“Schwitters, Kurt: Konstruktion fur edle Frauen (Construction for Noble
Ladies).” Artarchive.com. n.d. Web. 30 May. 2012.
<!http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/schwitters/nobleldy.jpg.html>
Figure 10:
Elderfield, John. “G Expression 1 (Der Wald or the Forest).” Kurt Schwitters.
New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987. Print.
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Figure 11:
Elderfield, John. “G Expression 2 (Die Sonne im Hocgebirge or Sun in the
High Mountains).” Kurt Schwitters. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987. Print.
Figure 12:
Cardinal, Roger and Gwendolen Webster. “Lake Djupvand with Snow.” Kurt Schwitters.
Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2011. Print.
Figure 13:
Cardinal, Roger and Gwendolen Webster. “Glacier under Snow.” Kurt Schwitters. Ostfildern:
Hatje Cantz, 2011. Print.
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Figure 14:
“Schwitters, Kurt: Merzbild Alf.” Artarchive.com. n.d. Web. 30 May. 2012.
<http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/schwitters/alf.jpg.html>
Figure 15:
“Schwitters, Kurt: Merzbild Alf.” Artarchive.com. n.d. Web. 30 May. 2012.
<http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/schwitters/alf.jpg.html>
Figure 16:
“Schwitters, Kurt: Merzbild Alf.” Artarchive.com. n.d. Web. 30 May. 2012.
<http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/schwitters/alf.jpg.html>
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Figure 17:
Cardinal, Roger and Gwendolen Webster. “Merz 24. Ursonate”. Tschinchold, Jan. Ostfildern:
Hatje Cantz, 2011. Print.
Figure 18:
“Dada Almanach.” The University of Iowa Libreries. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.
<http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/da/pages/053.htm>
Figure 19:
Thomas, Elizabeth. “Hannover Merzbau.” Moma.org. 2012. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<!http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/07/09/in-search-of-lost-art-kurtschwitterss-merzbau/
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Figure 20:
“The Babel Fiasco Part VI.” Thebabelfiasco.com. n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<!http://thebabelfiasco.com/The-Babel-Fiasco-Part-VI>
Figure 21:
“The Babel Fiasco Part VI.” Thebabelfiasco.com. n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2012.
<!http://thebabelfiasco.com/The-Babel-Fiasco-Part-VI>
Figure 22: In appendix I
“Hitler and Goebbels at “Entartete Kunst.1937.” Luala. 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<!http://luala.vn/?cat=1&subcat=188&pid=29150&lang=en>
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Appendix 1: Biography of Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters was born on June 20, 1887 in Rumannstrasse in Hannover. Born
under Eduard and Henriette Schwitters, owner of a fashion shop at the town center, Kurt
Schwitters was an only child. In 1901, during a family’s country retreat, Kurt experiences his
first epilepsy. Without any medical treatment available for epilepsy, he misses a year of
school, which he spends writing poetry, playing piano, and painting.
In 1908 he enrolls into college of Applied Arts, Hanover where he receives an award
for his outstanding clay sculpture and honorable mention for the gravestone design. The next
year, 1909, Kurt Schwitters enrolls into Royal Academy of Art of Dresden where he stays
until 1915. As a student of Royal Academy of Art of Dresden, he gains the opportunity to
exhibit at Kunstverein Hannover, one of Germany’s prestige art galleries, and becomes fond
of abstract art. In aspiration to enhance his study in abstract art, Kurt applies to Berlin
Academy in 1911, which he gets rejected to.
In 1915, Kurt Schwitters marries Helma Fischer, his cousin, which he had developed
a relationship with since 1908. After a year of their marriage, Helma gives birth to their first
child, named Gerd, who meets an early death after a week of birth. In 1917, Kurt Schwitters
gets conscripted to war, despite his epilepsy. Although he was assigned with clerical duties in
the local regiment, he soon gets dismissed as unfit and gets sent to work as a draftsman in a
local ironworks. In 1918, Helma gives birth to their son Ernst. Although Kurt was faced with
new responsibilities with birth of Ernst, Kurt leaves ironworks and commits himself to art.
By 1919, Kurt Schwitters develops Merz pictures, which were products of the
influence he received from confronting diverse art movement at that time such as Berlin
Dadaism and Herwarth Walden’s Galerie Der Sturm. Merz pictures were made out of scraps
of rubbish, which Kurt had been experimenting with since the winter of 1918. On that year,
Kurt also exhibits his works at Sturm and publishes the poem An Anna Blume, which causes
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great controversy. His Merz works soon become a subject of condemnation by the press.
In 1922, Kurt Schwitters accepts the invitation of Theo van Doesburg, founder of the
De Stijl movement, who had asked him to take part in the Dada performance in Holland. The
performances were successful. Kurt describes the performances as one of the highlights of his
art career. Although he was successful, due to the inflation crisis in Germany, Kurt faces
financial problems, as his artworks were not selling.
Thus he turns to professional jobs with steady payment. In 1923, he starts the
publication of Merz Journal but also writes dramas, scripts, and librettos. His writings were
so profound that in 1930 he becomes a member at international PEN club. Along with his
journalistic activities, Kurt worked for several companies in Hanover and in other European
countries as commercial artist, graphic designer, and typographer. During his artistic peak in
1927, he founds the “ring neuer werbegestalter” (circle of new commercial artists). His art
career flourishes in the 1930s, as he becomes more and more known in the international field.
He even participates in the 1936 MoMA exhibition, “Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic
Art, Dada, Surrealism” in New York.
FIG 21 Hitler and Goebbels at “Entartete Kunst.” 1937
However, as Nazis seized Germany, Kurt’s artworks soon became banned. His
artworks were labeled as “degenerate art” and were attacked as degrading superior German
culture. His artworks were displayed at “Entartete Kunst” exhibition in Munich in mid-1937
as degenerate artwork pointed by Hitler.
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Kurt Schwitters could no longer continue his art career under the strong oppression
and emigrates to Lysaker, Norway in 1937 with his son, who was already in Oslo. His wife,
Helma, was left behind in Hanover to protect family property and look after ailing parents
and parents-in-law. Kurt continuously wrote to her and she visited Norway until the war
broke out. To maintain a living in Norway, Kurt sold landscape paintings to tourists during
summer but during his spare times he worked on his artworks, especially on his second
Merzbau. Yet, his life in Norway did not last long when Nazi troops invaded Norway. Kurt
Schwitters soon became a target of arrest in Norway. He was no longer safe in Norway.
Kurt Schwitters was off to another exile to England in 1940. He succeeds in escaping
to England but interns at the refugee camp for over a year, selling his artwork for a living.
After his release, he works on his third Merzbau in 1947 with the stipend from MoMA.
However, Kurt Schwitters dies on January 8, 1948 in Kendal, England unable to finish his
Merzbau or to go back home to Hanover, Germany.
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Appendix 2: Letter to Expert
In attempt to broaden and strengthen my research on Kurt Schwitters, I sent Ms.
Megan R. Luke, assistant professor of Art History at University of Southern California, an
email requesting assistance on my research. Ms. Luke has held out extensive research on Kurt
Schwitters throughout her career. However, unfortunately, I did not receive a response from
her.
Below is a letter that I sent to Ms. Luke, inquiring her help.
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Ms. Heekyung Kim
High School Student
International Community School
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
heekyung.kim@icsaddis.edu.et
20th November 2012
Ms. Megan R. Luke
Assistant Professor of Art History
Department of Art History
University of Southern California
DearMs. Luke,
My name is Heekyung Kim. I am a student at the International Community School of Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia and I am actively involved in the curriculum designed by International
Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO).
In the framework of the IB Diploma Program, students are required to write a research
paper, known as the Extended Essay. We must conduct an in-depth study on a topic from
the list of approved Diploma Programme subjects, and I decided to focus on the Visual
Arts. This piece of writing is intended to help us learn research skills, writing skills as well
as encourage intellectual inquiry and curiosity. My topic of choice for this Extended Essay
is Kurt Schwitters; more specifically on the question of whether Kurt Schwitters was a
Dadaist.
In my research I came across your name several times and understand that you are an art
historian, who has conducted extensive researches upon Kurt Schwitters' life and work.
To extend the scope of my investigation and to increase the quality of my work, I ask upon
your assistance. May I kindly solicit your opinion on my Extend Essay here-attached, and
would you provide me with comments on its accuracy. I would welcome any suggestions
or any additional information that you would find relevant to share with me.
As I have a deadline to meet for the essay, would you kindly respond back within the next
ten days or so.
I am looking forward to hearing back from you!
Thank you for taking the time to read my email.
Heekyung Kim