Kurt Schwitters: Merz (2016) – Norman Rosenthal interviews Damien Hirst

Hausmann, and Hannah Höch, all of whom become his
lifelong friends.
Schwitters produces collages of discarded paper for
the first time and soon after, his first assemblages
incorporating a variety of small, found objects into his
compositions. He invents the term “Merz” (according to
the artist, from Kommerz, or “commerce”) to describe
his art. He eventually extends the principles of collage
composition and the designation “Merz” to all his
activities: graphic design, writing, and performance.
Despite breaking new ground with his abstract, collagebased
oeuvre, Schwitters will continue to produce
figurative works and landscapes in a traditional figurative
style throughout his life.
On November 11 an armistice signals the official end of
the First World War. The following June, Germany signs
the Treaty of Versailles, agreeing to reparations that will
bankrupt the country’s economy.
1919
Schwitters becomes a member of the artists association
Internationale Vereinigung von Expressionisten, Kubisten
und Futuristen, or IVEKF. At the same time, he becomes
increasingly aware of the radical Dada movement.
Launched in Zurich, Dadaism soon took root in several
cities internationally, most notably for Schwitters in
Berlin. In May he meets Dada writer Richard Huelsenbeck
in Berlin and shortly after writes to Tristan Tzara in Zurich
expressing his interest in the latter’s Dada publications.
Schwitters also begins a series of Dadaist watercolors
and produces rubber-stamp drawings and graphic prints.
Despite his active engagement with prominent Dadaists,
he is officially rejected by the group, which deems him
too bourgeois, in part because he is associated with the
Galerie Der Sturm.
Through the summer and early fall, Schwitters’s work
is shown in a number of group exhibitions outside
Hanover, including one at the Jenaer Kunstverein, Jena
(May—June); at the Galerie Emil Richter and the Neue
Vereinigung für Kunst, Dresden (June—July); at the
Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, where he exhibits the Merz
pictures for the first time (July); and at the Kunstsalon
Rembrandt in Zurich (July—September).
In July, Schwitters publishes an essay explaining the
concept of Merz, and the Dadaist love poem “An Anna
Blume” (To Eve Blossom) in Der Sturm, no. 4; in October
he publishes “1 Merzbühne’ (1 The Merz Stage) in Sturm-
Bühne, Jahrbuch des Theaters der Expressionisten (no.
8). At the end of the year Paul Steegemann publishes
the book Anna Blume. Dichtungen (Eve Blossom,
Poetry), which contains a collection of prose and poetry,
including “An Anna Blume.” The poem is soon translated
into several languages and earns Schwitters instant
notoriety in Germany and internationally.
Between 1919 and 1924, Schwitters publishes (in
addition to his Merz magazine founded in 1923) four
volumes of poetry and prose and numerous poems, and
he responds to harsh criticism of his work in strident
and often hilarious texts he calls “Tran” (from Lebertran,
meaning cod-liver oil), which are published in a variety of
periodicals.
1920
Schwitters regularly travels to Berlin, where he recites
poetry at the Galerie Der Sturm for the first time on May
5. He meets artist George Grosz and continues to be
in contact with the Dada artists there. He also makes
a trip to Cologne, where he becomes acquainted with
writer Michel Seuphor and artist Max Ernst. Ernst makes
a return visit to Hanover later in the year.
At the Galerie Der Strum, Schwitters meets collector
Katherine S. Dreier, who with artists Marcel Duchamp
and Man Ray the same year found the Société Anonyme
as the first organization in the United States to focus
exclusively on contemporary art. Of German descent and
with strong ties to Berlin and particularly the Galerie Der
Sturm, Dreier develops close friendships with Schwitters
and his wife, Helma, with whom she thereafter
corresponds frequently. Dreier is not only instrumental
in introducing Schwitters’s work to the United States
but also provides needed financial assistance to the
Schwitterses during the 1920s and 1930s.
“Fifth Exhibition of the Société Anonyme.” Galleries of
the Société Anonyme, New York, November 1-December
15, includes works by Schwitters in his first exhibition in
the United States. He is also included in exhibitions in
Darmstadt, Dresden, and Rome.
Several publications feature images of Schwitters’s
Merz work together with descriptions of his studio:
Bernhard Gröttrup, “Ein Besuch bei Anna Blume,”
Die Pille; Eine aktuelle, kritische, witzige, freche,
unparteiische hannoversche Wochenzeitschrift (no. 7);
and Alfred Dudelsack, “Kuwitters: Bei Schwitters,” in the
supplement of Braunschweiger Illustrierte Woche (no. 5).
1921
Schwitters’s essay “Merz” (written in December 1920)
and photographs of several of his Merz works are
published in the Munich-based magazine Der Ararat (no.
1) edited by Hans Goltz. Exiled Hungarian poet Lajos
Kassak devotes a three-page spread of his periodical
MA (Today) to Schwitters’s work, including a Hungarian
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