Kurt Schwitters

“At the latest exhibition at Der Sturm, a man by the name of Kurt Schwitters was making pictures out of newspaper cuttings and pasted scraps, out of hair and hoops from barrels. What is this meant to be?”

This critical remark comes from a letter written by László Moholy-Nagy in 1920. However, it was not long before he came to appreciate the “Merz art” by Kurt Schwitters that he criticises here. The two artists met at the gallery Der Sturm in Berlin. Its owner, Herwarth Walden, launched the magazine of the same name in 1910. Two years later, he founded the gallery. It became the key venue for modern art in the German-speaking world – a centre of the avant-garde, exhibiting works of Expressionism, Dadaism, Futurism and Cubism, and showcasing the leading figures of modern art. It was not merely an exhibition space, but a hub of artistic exchange and a place dedicated to introducing audiences to modern art. 

This work by Schwitters belongs to a small series of stamp drawings produced from 1919 onwards. At the time, the artist was working in the offices of the Sturm publishing house. As always, he made use of whatever was at hand – from coloured pencils to scraps of paper, postage stamps and the office’s own rubber stamps. All the textual elements of the image, printed in dark pink, come from different stamps. They include phrases such as “the Secretariat“, “the Editorial Office“ and “Der Sturm Publishing House“. Schwitters used the stamps to create lines and shapes. In addition, he pasted on the margin of a sheet of postage stamps. With a red coloured pencil, he added several lines that connect the stamped forms in the image.

Schwitters published several texts with Der Sturm, as well as four volumes of Anna Blume and a publication in the Sturm Picture Books series. Between 1918 and 1928, his works were shown at the gallery in both group and solo exhibitions.