.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
'One can also shout through refuse, and this is what I did, nailing and gluing it togetherit was to some extent a social viewpoint' (Kurt Schwitters, quoted in F. Lach, Kurt Schwitters. Das literarische Werk, vol. V, Cologne, 1973-1981, p. 335).
Executed in 1919, Merzbild 9A Bild mit Damenstein (Merzbild 9A, Picture with Checker) is one of the very first of Kurt Schwitters Merz-Pictures. Making use of a wide range of detritus from painted strips of cardboard and canvas to tufts of wool, a tin lid and the wooden 'draught' or 'checker' of the title, Schwitters has here assembled an angular and dynamic composition reminiscent of his earlier brooding Expressionist paintings.
Contrasting material reality with the abstract brushwork of pictorial composition, the picture is a whimsical and carefully organized play between constructive order and the apparent chaos of material. 'Merz' was the name that Schwitters gave to his one-man art movement born in the Summer of 1919. It was after being rejected in his application to join Berlin's 'Club Dada' by members resentful of Schwitters' ongoing affiliation with Herwarth Walden's Der Sturm gallery, that Schwitters baptized this highly original work 'Merz' and effectively set out on his own. Taking its name from a fragment of the words 'Kommerz und Privatbank' that Schwitters had cut out for one of his collages 'Merz' soon became a one-man artistic revolution in which art and life were to be merged through the 'business' of assembling fragments and detritus of modernity into new glorified forms and expressions of the triumph of the human spirit. 'Merz-Painting', Schwitters announced at this time 'aims at direct expression by shortening the interval between the intuition and realization of the work of art' (Kurt Schwitters, 'Merzmalerei', 1919, quoted in ibid, p. 51).
As with Walden's Der Sturm which by 1919 comprised a gallery, a magazine, a theatre and a book series amongst many other things, Schwitters too sought to translate 'Merz' into complete organization geared towards the revolutionary transformation of both art and life. 'Merz is a philosophy' he proclaimed. 'Its essence is absolute uninhibitedness and impartiality... Merz means forging relationships, preferably between all things in the world' (Kurt Schwitters quoted in F. Lach, op cit., p. 187).
Executed in 1919, Merzbild 9A Bild mit Damenstein (Merzbild 9A, Picture with Checker) is one of the very first of Kurt Schwitters Merz-Pictures. Making use of a wide range of detritus from painted strips of cardboard and canvas to tufts of wool, a tin lid and the wooden 'draught' or 'checker' of the title, Schwitters has here assembled an angular and dynamic composition reminiscent of his earlier brooding Expressionist paintings.
Contrasting material reality with the abstract brushwork of pictorial composition, the picture is a whimsical and carefully organized play between constructive order and the apparent chaos of material. 'Merz' was the name that Schwitters gave to his one-man art movement born in the Summer of 1919. It was after being rejected in his application to join Berlin's 'Club Dada' by members resentful of Schwitters' ongoing affiliation with Herwarth Walden's Der Sturm gallery, that Schwitters baptized this highly original work 'Merz' and effectively set out on his own. Taking its name from a fragment of the words 'Kommerz und Privatbank' that Schwitters had cut out for one of his collages 'Merz' soon became a one-man artistic revolution in which art and life were to be merged through the 'business' of assembling fragments and detritus of modernity into new glorified forms and expressions of the triumph of the human spirit. 'Merz-Painting', Schwitters announced at this time 'aims at direct expression by shortening the interval between the intuition and realization of the work of art' (Kurt Schwitters, 'Merzmalerei', 1919, quoted in ibid, p. 51).
As with Walden's Der Sturm which by 1919 comprised a gallery, a magazine, a theatre and a book series amongst many other things, Schwitters too sought to translate 'Merz' into complete organization geared towards the revolutionary transformation of both art and life. 'Merz is a philosophy' he proclaimed. 'Its essence is absolute uninhibitedness and impartiality... Merz means forging relationships, preferably between all things in the world' (Kurt Schwitters quoted in F. Lach, op cit., p. 187).