Book: Kurt Schwitters: Merzkunst

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) is one of the most influential protagonists of the avant-garde, both as an artist and an author. With his utopia of the “total Merz vision of the world” he aimed at the “unification of art and non-art”. The art of assemblage and material art reached its first high point in his work; his “Merzbau” is regarded as a forerunner of present-day installations.

In Schwitters’s compositions, apparently worthless things are resurrected and open up rich fields of association in new interactions. Merz art is abstract and characterised by the way it crosses borders within the media. For example, the “Merzbau” was created in Hannover between Dada and Constructivism,. This total work of art originally extended across a number of rooms and has been reconstructed in the Sprengel Museum inHannover. The publication provides an introduction to the Merz art of Kurt Schwitters and draws on the wealth of material to be found in the artist’s estate, which is the subject of recent research.