Product Description

Although Kurt Schwitters was one of the most influential artists of international modernism, only select portions of his immensely varied body of pictorial work have been investigated thoroughly. And what a body of work it is, unlike one ever seen before or after, combining bits of found detritus into compositions of tight, unexpected melodies and startling tunes. Schwitters was constantly sighting scraps of handbills, train tickets, newspapers, clothing, and more on the city streets, pocketing them for later use in one of his Merz collages. His intense body of found object constructions stands as one of the premier examples of the ultimtate modern form, assemblage, of which he has been called the "grandfather." After extensive research worldwide and a complete examination of his artistic estate, Schwitters's oeuvre has finally been properly acknowledged, documented, and prepared for public presentation. The comprehensive Kurt Schwitters Catalogue Raisonné, of which the present volume is the third installation, includes more than four thousand works from the period between 1905 and 1948, many of them published for the first time. Lost and destroyed works are documented whenever possible. For ease of reference, the survey is ordered chronologically; within each year, works are sub-divided according to genre. In this third volume are presented creations spanning Schwitters's years in exile, 1937 to 1948, when he escaped Nazi Germany to live first in Norway and then in England. Though artworks are primarily reproduced in black-and-white, each volume of the catalogue also presents color reproductions of representative works. Clothbound, 10.5 x 12 in./776 pgs / 140 color and 1200 b&w.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2156971 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-15
• Released on: 2005-11-15
• Original language: English, German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 776 pages

About the Author
Kurt Schwitters was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1887. He studied at the Hanover School for Applied Arts and the Art Academy in Dresden. In 1911 he participated in his first exhibition. In 1919 the first pictures of his Merz were published, as was his poem An Anna Blume. Throughout the 20s, he devoted most of his energy to working on the Merzbau and Merz magazine, and also founded a successful advertising agency in 1924. Upon the Nazi defamation of his work in 1937, he emigrated to Norway, later continuing on to England, where he died in 1948. Five years earlier, an air raid over his home in Hanover had destroyed the original Merzbau.