European Art

Provenance:

Hans Brockstedt, Hanover, Germany, 1956

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1956 (label verso, erroneously dated to 1936)

Ralph Pappenheimer, Cincinnati, Ohio

Private Collection, Toronto, Canada

Gemini Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida

Sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 19, 1986, Lot 113 (erroneously dated to 1936)

Private Collection, New York, 1986 - 1997

Clements Touissant, Cologne, Germany, 1997 - 1999

With Art Focus, Zürich, 1999

Galerie Berinson, Berlin, 2000

Ubu Gallery, New York, 2003

Purchased from the above by the present owner, 2003

Exhibited: 

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, 57 Collages: Kurt Schwitters, October 22 - November 17, 1956, no. 37

New York, Ubu Gallery, Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948): Collages, Paintings, Drawings, Objects, Ephemera, April 1 - May 23, 2003, p. 1, no. 1, illus.

Literature: 

Inka Schube, Kurt Schwitters: Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, 1923 - 1936, Berlin, 2003, p. 219, no. 1470, illus.

Lot note:

Created from found scraps, Untitled (uviolett), c. 1926-28, is an excellent example of Kurt Schwitters’s MERZ-pictures, a series of collages that have become the most prominent works in his oeuvre. Schwitters referred to these collages as their own species and obsessed over the intricacies of their creation. The paper scraps – labels, advertisements, newspaper clippings, any manner of detritus – were placed in a way both complex and seemingly random, discarding any pretense of illusionistic hierarchy in the process.

Untitled (uviolett) references a snippet of a word found in the bottom right corner of the work, partially covered by another scrap of paper in careful layers. A brightly patterned scrap contrasts with the others, creating shadows and depth while toying with perspective. The viewers’ eyes are drawn to the text, trying to recognize what each piece was before it was collaged, and in this Schwitters succeeds: the ordinary has become art. 

Upon his first discovery of collage, influenced by contemporaries Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, and Jean Arp, formally trained Schwitters was overwhelmed with his newfound material freedom and struggled to find a term for his new imagery. The term Merz originated as organically as the found materials from which they were made: a shred of an advertisement clipping Schwitters used in one of his earliest creations was printed with the word Kommerz (commerce), and from there Merz emerged. Merz would eventually envelop Schwitters’ practice as he navigated the evolution of his Dadaist avant-garde assemblages.

The birth of Merz was inextricably linked to the harrowing conditions in Germany following World War I, as the country grappled with political, moral, and economic ruin. The materials he repurposed in his work were a practical but quiet commentary on commercial culture and the societal downfall from which he felt there was no escape.  “Merz,” said Schwitters, “stands for freedom from all fetters, for the sake of artistic creation.”

Freedom in any sense became harder to maintain as the Second World War loomed. Though his career had progressed -- leading to opportunities such as his inclusion in two seminal exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art -- his aesthetic wasn’t appreciated by the Nazis, who deemed him a “degenerate.”

Schwitters fled to Norway, then was forced to the United Kingdom and a series of internment camps. He would continue compulsively making work for the rest of his life, with his predilection for found materials allowing him to create even in the most distressing circumstances. He was eventually released in 1941 and moved to London. Though a stroke in 1944 left him largely bedridden, his momentum never diminished, rather, he lived with a fervor and directed a new collaged construction project with financial support from the Museum of Modern Art, which was never completed.

Schwitters died in 1948, the day after receiving a long-sought-after American visa. A fastidious record keeper, his archives were unfortunately destroyed in an Allied bombing raid. This, combined with the limited commercial success received during his lifetime, further delayed the market’s appreciation for his contributions to Modernism and beyond. Posthumously referred to as the grandfather of both Pop art and Fluxus, Schwitters has been cited as an influence by artists including Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, and Arman. Though the artist will never see it himself, the art world has also fallen under the spell of Merz.