5. “Merz Drawings” I: Reflections of the present

In 1918, Kurt Schwitters began producing collages, which he called Merz Drawings, for which he used found materials such as paper, newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, advertising leaflets, feathers, and fabrics. He would coat the image surface with wallpaper paste and then arrange the various elements into a composition. Schwitters was fascinated by the inherent properties of different materials – their structure, colour, and luminosity – and what kind of artistic effects he could generate with them. Some of the artworks in question consist only of abstract shapes, while others feature snippets of text and images from advertisements, evoking the consumer culture that was so rapidly spreading at the time or the political events of the day. Some of the works make reference to Schwitters’s travels and his many connections at home and abroad. Schwitters did not intend for his Merz Drawings to convey a specific message, and as such, they have no unambiguous meaning. They typically contain references to everyday occurrences and personal experiences and are characterised by a playful combination of language and materials.

Background: Kurt Schwitters’s Merz Drawings are inspired by the Dadaist collage technique, also referred to as “montage”. For the Dadaists, montage was viewed as a radical, innovative art form for the modern age of media and industry. They wanted montage to visually reflect the turmoil and disunity, the violence, contradictions, and numerous problems that plagued society in the wake of the First World War. Unlike the politically charged collages being produced by the Dadaist counterparts, Schwitters’s Merz Drawings are more apolitical and subjective in nature, with material, form, and composition taking precedence.