KURT SCHWITTERS, quotes on his Merz art & life in Dada – German Dadaism; Merzbau / Ursonate + biography facts
KURT SCHWITTERS (1886 – 1966), biography quotes on life & art in Dadaism and his Dada art like his MerzBau, collages, poems (often with Hans Arp), music: Ursonate and installation art: Merzbau. Kurt Schwitters was sculptor, painter, poet and writer; he represented as essential Dada artist the not-political Dada in Germany, but had to fly away to Norway and even England, to scape Nazism. At the bottom more biography facts and information on Schwitter’s, Merz-art and life in Dada, with some art links for the artist of German Dadaism. (for Schwitters quotes in German language). – the editor.
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a reconstruction of Schwitters ‘Merzbau’ (was bombed in 1943; Hannover) |
Kurt Schwitters, art quotes of the German artist in Dada: on collage, poetry, Merz art & Merzbau
- Merz paintings are abstract works of art. The word ‘Merz’ essentially means the totality of all imaginable materials that can be used for artistic purposes and technically the principle that all of these individual materials have equal value. Merz art makes use not just of paint and canvas, brush and palette, but all the materials visible to the eye and all tools needed… …the wheel off a pram, wire mesh, string and cotton balls – these are factors of equal value to paints. The artist creates by choosing, distributing and reshaping the materials.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of a quote on Dada Art & life: ‘Merz Painting’ (1919); as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 91. (Dadaist German painter, poet and sculptor, famous for his Merz art, Merzbau & Ursonate, Dada-friend of Hans Arp and Van Doesburg; more biography facts below)
- Merz art strives for immediate expression by shortening the path from intuition to visual manifestation of the artwork…. …they will receive my new work als they always have when something new presents itself: with indignation and screams of scorn.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on Dada Art & life: ‘Merz Painting’ (1919); as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 91.
- Merz art strives for immediate expression by shortening the path from intuition to visual manifestation of the artwork…. …they will receive my new work als they always have when something new presents itself: with indignation and screams of scorn.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of his quote on Dada Art & life: ‘Merz Painting’ (1919); as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 91.
- Merz stands for the freedom of all fetters… …Merz also means tolerance towards any artistically motivated limitation. Every artist must be allowed to mould a picture out of nothing but blotting paper, for example, provided he is capable of moulding a picture.
* Schwitters, source of a quote on Dada Art & life: ‘Merz. Für den Ararat geschrieben’ (1920), in “Kurt Schwitters, das literarische Werk”. Ed. Friedhelm Lach, Dumont Cologne, 1973 – 1981, Vol. 5 p. 77.
- The medium is as unimportant as I myself. Essential is only the forming… …I take any material whatsoever if the picture demands it. When I adjust materials of different kinds to one another, I have taken a step in advance of mere oil painting, for in addition to playing off color against color, line against line, form against form etc. I play off material against material, wood against sack clothes. (1921)
* Kurt Schwitters, source of his quote on th medium in Dada Art & life: “Abstract Art”, Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson, London 1990, pp. 68-69.
- We, the founders of Dada-movement try to give time its own reflection in the mirror.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on Dada: first edition of his famous magazine ‘’Merz’, 1923.
- Art is a spiritual function of man, which aims at freeing him from life’s chaos. Art is free in the use of its means in any way it likes, but is bound to its laws and to its laws alone. The minute it becomes art, it becomes much more sublime than a class distinction between proletariat and bourgeoisie. (in discussion with the ‘political’ Dadaist artists like Huelsenbeck, fh)
* Kurt Schwitters, source of the artist quote on Dada Art & life: his famous manifesto ‘Proletkult’, 1923. (Dadaist German painter, poet and sculptor, famous for his Merz art, Merzbau & Ursonate, Dada-friend of Hans Arp and Van Doesburg; more biography facts below)
- Kurt Schwitters is the inventor of Merz and I, and aside of himself, he recognizes no one as a Merz artists or an I artist with highest regards.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of his quote: ‘Die Blume Anna’, a poem of Kurt Schwitters in ‘Consistent Poetry Art’ his contribution to ‘Magazine G’, No. 3, 1924, ed. by Hans Richter; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.
- Classical poetry counts on people’s similarity. It regards idea associations as unequivocal. This is a mistake. In any case, it rests on a fulcrum of idea associations: ‘Above the peaks is peace.’… …The poet counts on poetic feelings. And what is a poetic feeling? The whole poetry of peace/ quiet stands or falls on the reader’s ability to feel. Words are not judged here.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on Dada Art: ‘Consistent Poetry Art’ Schwitters contribution to ‘Magazine G’, No. 3, 1924, ed. by Hans Richter; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.
- Consistent poetry is made of letters. Letters have no idea. Letters as such (written!, fh) have no sound, they offer only tonal possibilities, to be valuated by the performer (spoken!, fh). The consistent poem weighs the value of both letters and groups.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on Art & life: ‘Consistent Poetry Art’ Schwitters contribution to ‘Magazine G’, No. 3, 1924, ed. by Hans Richter; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.
- I cannot make a living out of art and I now occupy myself with a variety of things. Of course, I continue to paint and to nail, but in particular I write grotesques and art reviews for newspapers, I organize evenings and draw commercial art for newspapers.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on life: a letter to Galka Scheyer, January 1926; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 34. (Dadaist German painter, poet and sculptor, famous for his Merz art, Merzbau & Ursonate, Dada-friend of Hans Arp and Van Doesburg; more biography facts below)
- Just as soon as the great and glorious Revolution broke out (after World War 1., fh) I gave notice and now live entirely for art. For a while, I tried to create new forms of art from the remains of the old culture. From this Merz painting emerged, painting that happily used every material – Pelikan (ink mark, fh) colors or the rubbish from the rubbish heap. So I experienced the Revolution in the most delightful way and pass for a Dadaist, without being one. As a result, I could introduce Dadaism in Holland (together with Theo van Doesburg and his wife, fh) with complete impartiality. In Holland I became familiar with architecture for the first time.
* source of artist quotes on Dada Art & life in Holland: ‘Autobiography of Kurt Schwitters’, 6 June 1926, sent to Hans Hilderbrandt; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 92.
- In the war ( World War 1., fh) things were in terrible turmoil. What I had learned at the academy was of no use to me and the useful new ideas were still unready…. …I felt myself freed and had to shout my jubilation out to the world. Out of parsimony I took what I could find to do this, because we were now an impoverished country. One can even shout with refuse, and this is what I did, nailing and gluing it (his art pieces, fh) together. I called it ‘Merz’; it was a prayer about the victorious end of the war, victorious as once again peace had won in the end; everything had broken down in any case and new things had to be made out of the fragments; and this is Merz.
* source of quote on his life during the War: ‘Kurt Schwitters’ (1930), in “Kurt Schwitters, das literarische Werk”. Ed. Friedhelm Lach, Dumont Cologne, 1973 – 1981, Vol. 5 p. 335.
- I know that I am an important factor in the development of art and shall forever remain so. I say this with great emphasis, so that one can not say, at a later ate: ‘The poor fellow had no inkling of how important he was’. Nom I am no fool, nor am I timid. I know full well that the time will come for me and all other important personalities of the abstract movement, when we will influence an entire generation. However, I fear that I shall not experience this.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on life: ‘I and my purpose’ in Merz, no. 21, 1931; as quoted in ‘Introduction’ of the catalogue of Schwitters one-man show at the Marlborough Gallery,London March-April 1963.
- Nevertheless I like being in Norway (to escape the Nazis Schwitters fled to Norway in 1937?? , fh), for it is a country if unparalleled beauty… …I paint landscapes and portraits, model portrait, glue and paint abstract pictures and glue abstract plastic art; besides, I write poetry in German… … What distresses me most of all is that I can not live in my Merzraum ( a sculptured space Schwitters had built in Germany in the 1920s, but it was bomb-damaged in the war, fh) and that it may be given up to destruction. For that reason I ask you once more, can you keep your ear to the ground again, to see if anyone in America is willing to give me an opportunity to shape a three-dimensional room?
* Kurt Schwitters, source of his quotes on life in Norway: a letter to Galka Scheyer, 24 July 1937; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 41.
- The custom official was desperate, he did not know whether they were pictures, wood ware or even arms (his abstract art which he exported to France, fh). I got the impression he ha an inner struggle with two options, either to have me arrested or to call the lunatic asylum. Finally he did not want to make a fool of himself, and accepted they were paintings, especially because another customs official knew me personally and confirmed that I was an artist.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of a quote on life: a letter to Henriette Schwitters, 16 June 1939; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 41.
- A museum that really wants to promote modern art might give the artist a guaranty, on certain conditions, so that he can get on with his life and his creations. Or do you believe that the museum is more interested in the artist’s death, in order to see the price of his paintings go up?
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote: a letter to Käthe Steinitz from the internment camp on Isle of Man, England, 11 November 1940 (Dadaist German painter, poet and sculptor, famous for his Merz art, Merzbau, Ursonate; biography below)
- Please help me, in order to get us invited (to the United States, fh). Helma (his wife, fh) will then come later and I will work there (America, fh) and soon pay back the people who lend me the money. Bit finally I must get out of this internment (because the English mistrusted him, being a German, fh) and further away from Norway, I want to be with all of you. Please get it done quickly and write to me about the outcome. Maybe my art is in danger and I, of course, with it. At last I would like to work on my abstracts again and find appreciation for them. Who knows what will happen?
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on life: letter to Käthe Steinitz from the internment camp on Isle of Man, England, 22 October 1941; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 45.
- I was thrilled, and I mean really thrilled, when I read that parts of the Merzbau could still be buried under the ruins. Whatever the circumstances. I will try and come to Hannover to salvage it… …wait until I arrive, for the Merzbau is made of plaster of Paris and could easily be damaged. However by working slowly I am sue I can save parts. And it is certainly worth it, because it is my life’s work. And in the opinion of people abroad it was seen as a new form of art.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on the MerzBau ruine thy found: letter to Käthe Steinitz 24 June 1945; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 47.
- In Hanover I built, before Hitler’s time, a studio called Merzbau. This has been reproduced very much, also in the book ‘Dada, Surrealism, Fantastic Art’ of the Museum of Modern Art (this exposition was in 1936, fh) N. Y. I would like to go to Germany for restoring the Merzbau… …Could I come with you to an agreement that you give me for this purpose some money? For example that I give you some pictures for the money ansd use it for restoring the studio… …Or would you prefer that you own with me half and half the * Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quotes on his MerzBau in his early German Dada life: letter to Oliver Kaufmann, (department of Paiting and Sculpture of the Moma New York), 30 April 1946; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 48.
- When I was born 20.6.(18)87, I was influenced by Picasso to cry. When I could walk and speak I still stood under Picasso’s influence and said to my mother: ‘Tom’ or ‘Happening’ meaning the entrances of the canal under the street. My lyrical time was when I lived in the Violet Street. I never saw a violet. That was my influenced by Matisse because when he painted rose I did not paint violet. As a boy of ten I stood under Mondrian’s influence and built little houses with little bricks. Afterwards I stood under the influence of the Surrealists… …In never stood under the influence of Dadaism because whereas the Dadaist created Spiegeldadaismus on the Zurich Lake, I created MERZ on the Leineriver, under the influence of Rembrandt. Time went on, and when Hans Arp made concrete Art, I stayed Abstract. Now I do concrete Art, and Marcel Duchamps went over to the Surrealists… …,and at all I have much fun about Art.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on his art biography of Merz art: ‘My art and My live (1940 – 1946); as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 100.
- One needs a medium. The best is, one is his own medium. But don’t be serious because seriousness belongs to a passed time. This medium, called you yourself will tell you to take absolutely the wrong material. That is very good, because only the wrong material used in the wrong way, will give the right picture, when you look at it from the right angle. Or the wrong angle. That leads us to the new ism: Anglism. The first art starting from England (where Schwitters stayed when he wrote this, fh), except the former shapes of art.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on having a medium as artists: That is my confession I have to make MERZ. (1940 – 1946); as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, pp. 100-101.
- …Since the loss of the Merzbau, which was a big sculpture (5 x 4 x 4,5 meters) I did a lot of small sculptures…
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quotes on Dada Art & life: letter to Edgar Kaufmann, 16 July 1946; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 48.
- I have two principle aims, two life works. The second is my sonata (his ‘UrSonata’ a long sound poem of 35 minutes ed.)
* Kurt Schwitters, source: a quote by Margareth Miller to Oliver Kaufmann; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 48.
- My name is Schwitters, Kurt Schwitters…. …I’m a painter and I nail my pictures… …I’d like to be accepted into the Dada Club (Schwitters is introducing himself to the Dadaist Hans Richter in Zurich, ed.)
* Kurt Schwitters, source: ‘Hannover-Dada’, Hans Richter, after 1948; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.
- Eternal lasts the longest.
* Kurt Schwitters, source: ‘Hannover-Dada’, Hans Richter, after 1948; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.
- Whatever became of Kurt Schwitters novel ‘Franz Müllers Drahtfrühling’ [ Franz Müller’s Wire Spring ] several chapters of which we composed together? Is it buried under the bomb ruins of is house on Waldhausenstrasse in Hannover? For hours, Schwitters and I (= Hans Arp, ed.) sat together and spun dialogue, in rhapsody. He took these writings and channelled them into his novel… …We sat together again, writing ‘Franz Müllers Drahtfrühling’:
Hans Arp: The nightingales have had enough of your hymnal Karagösen. Play violin on parrots, but avoid the women red hood ans snow widow.
Kurt Schwitters: Should I pe-trify something for you? Or would you like play cry together?
H. A.: Should we wash our tears or drown them?
K. Schw.: You are a sipsnipper, Since when do your diamonds bark?
H. A.: The water is getting hard. A fruit cries out loud and gives birth to a fish.
K. Schw.: I’ll p-ut it in the sea, or should I st-ab you wth it?
* Kurt Schwitters, source: ‘Franz Müllers Drahtfrühling – Memories of Kurt Schwitters’, Hans Arp 1956; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, pp. 139-140 (Dadaist poem; biography below)
- It is not the word that is the original material of poetry, rather the letter.
Word is:
1. Composition of letters
2. Sounds
3. Description (meaning)
4. Vehicle for idea associations
Art is uninterpretable, unending; material must be unequivocal in a consistent formation.
* Kurt Schwitters, source of artist quote on the essence of a word in his Dada poetry: ‘Consistent Poetry Art’ Schwitters contribution to ‘Magazine G’, No. 3, 1924, ed. by Hans Richter; as quoted in “I is Style”, ed. Siegfried Gohr & Gunda Luyken, commissioned by Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAI Publishers, Rotterdam 2000, p. 151.
Kurt Schwitters, biography facts of the German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters; Merz art
Kurt Schwitters studied painting on the German Dresden Art Academy and in 1914 in Berlin. In 1918 he made his first famous collages he called himself ‘Merz’. Schwitters belongs to the not-political Dada; the reason why he is refused by Swiss rather political Dadaist to participate in the Dada movement there. In 1920 his friendship and frequent cooperation with Dadaist Hans Arp started; in 1922 the contact starts with Theo van Doesburg the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg and his wife Nelie; Schwitters organizes several Dada-evenings in The Netherlands, which provoked sometimes the police to act.
In 1937 Schwitters moves to Norway permanently to escape Hitlers threat, but he has to flee three years later again, for German fascism, to England. There he find a second wife and stayed till his death in 1948. He never reached America despite so many efforts to be accepted there.
Kurt Schwitters, links for more facts on collage art & biography; German Dada artist
* biography facts on creating his Dada art, by the artist of German Dadaism, on Wikipedia
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