Merzbild 25a kurt schwitters biography
Merzbild Einunddreissig (merzpicture Thirty-one) (1920) by ...
2000-11-25 until 2001-02-18
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Dusseldorf, , DE Germany
The term MERZ, first used in 1919, was Kurt Schwitters' own invention. It came from a fragment of an advertisement for the Commerz- und Handelsbank which Schwitters had cut out and used for a collage, a picture composed from found objects and scraps of paper.
Using the relics of everyday life, such as tram tickets, pieces of wood, scraps of fabric, Schwitters produced not only collages but also three-dimensional works, so-called assemblages.
He used the term MERZ for a concept which united all his artistic activities, naming his works MERZ drawings, MERZ paintings, MERZ sculptures, MERZ publications.
He also organized MERZ soir�es with recitations of his prose, poetry and his famous Ursonate (Primordial Sonata). In 1923, Schwitters began to build his MERZbau, a walk-through installation constructed f THE EARLY WORK OF KURT SCHWITTERS - Artforum DYWO