KURT SCHWITTERS AS WRITER, POET AND LECTURER · by Ernst <strong>Schwitters</strong> 36
Sonata and after the Dadaists period, <strong>Kurt</strong> <strong>Schwitters</strong> wrote numerous poems of a style, slightly reminiscent of Morgenstern: rhythmic, humorous, and sometimes ironical, but always understanding, positive, friendly. Also his well-known ‘Grotesques’ developed in these years: 1923—1933. Some were humorous, some outright sarcastic, particularly when they criticised certain unhealthy aspects of contemporary life and thinking, like militarism, hero-worship, etc. A very typical side of his literary work during this time were his dialectic grotesques. They usually developed out of some mild irritation over a very talkative person. The most wellknown ones are undoubtedly Der Schirm (The umbrella), Schacko (The name of a pet parrot), Main näiääs Hutt (My new hat, Hungarian- German accent. The ‘original’ is Prof. Breuer of the Bauhaus, a friend of my father’s), Die Amerikanerin (The American Lady) and the hilarious Kleines Gedicht für große Stotterer (A little poem for great stutterers).There is one thing in common with all these works, as also with the poems and the Sonata: they developed slowly, improvised, as they were, during <strong>Kurt</strong> <strong>Schwitters</strong>’ MERZ lectures, and are very dependant on a correct, but very specific intonation and pronounciation. Usually, they were first written down after years of improvised recitation, when my father felt sure of the final form. Some were, unfortunately never written down at all, and only an all too vague memory of them remains in my ears. The problem of a phonetic way of noting down the intonation and pronunciation of my father’s literary work has baffled him throughout his life, and, finding no solution, many later works have, unfortunately, never appeared in print at all. Fortunately, they exist as manuscripts in his hand, and, I believe, l am still able to recite them as close to the original as is humanly possible. Eventually, they have to be recorded, at least on tape. 1933 and the advent of Hitler almost brought the end of <strong>Kurt</strong> <strong>Schwitters</strong>’ litterary work. He could, of course, not any more publicize anything in Germany. In 1934 his many earlier, published works were amongst those, destroyed during the Autodafee. In January 1937 he finally fled from Germany and lived and worked in his home in Lysaker, near Oslo, Norway. But, although he had lived in Norway for longer and longer periods every year, since he first visited that beautiful country in 1929, he never learned Norwegian so fluently as to be able to write in Norwegian. Only very few Norwegian poems exist in manuscript, one of them — Vamos — (the name of a dog) a wonderful sound-poem, even for those who do not understand Norwegian, although the content of the poem, too, is very touching. Then the Nazis invaded Norway, too, on April 9th 1940, and we both left the country for England. My father spoke English since his high school days, but, to write poetry or even prose in a ‘learned’ language is quite a different thing to speaking it, even relatively fluently. However, he did write a number of English poems, which appear concurrently in a little booklet: published by my authority by the Gaber Bochus Press. 37 Ernst <strong>Schwitters</strong>, Photograph of <strong>Kurt</strong> <strong>Schwitters</strong> in a boat at the foot of a glacier, 1935 © Tate, London 2015
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l Kurt Schwitters, Pollfoss, 1947 O
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Kurt Schwitters, who knew a lot of
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you liked my sonata. May I introduc
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93 Photograph of Helma Schwitters,
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Postcard Kurt and Helma Schwitters
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97 Kurt Schwitters: A genius in fri
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the Merzbau in Waldhausenstraße 5
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111 journal Der Sturm (Monatsschrif
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115 artists. In the wake of this co
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p. 117-119 cover and two pages by K
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“I think I could do well in the U
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Letter from Kurt Schwitters to Kath
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together with Alfred Barr and the c
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exhibition in the Pinacotheca Galle
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and gallerist Peggy Guggenheim, who
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collectors and leading institutions
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he also designed the catalogue: a p
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141 All art of any significance com
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143 The extraordinary American coll
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147 It is perhaps pertinently stran
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NR: Tell me, Damien, when did you f
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as important as Marcel Duchamp. DH:
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NR: So what happened to the house?
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“Imitation remains imitation. Imi
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Kurt Schwitters, Auwiese, 1920, new
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Hausmann, and Hannah Höch, all of
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In November, Schwitters publishes M
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several weeks later becomes dictato
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exhibition catalogue. In November 1
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Original Recordings by Kurt Schwitt
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Collage/Collages from Cubism to New
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1, 3, and 4. Ed. Perdita Lottner. E
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The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Ka
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