Kurt
Schwitters

Germany • 1887−1948

Biography and information

Kurt Schwitters (Kurt Schwitters 20 June 1887 in Hanover, Germany – January 8, 1948, Kendal, UK) – German painter, collagist and writer, one of the brightest representatives of Dadaism that created his works from trash collected on the streets. Schwitters adolescence suffered from epileptic fits that affected his life and creativity. He studied painting and drawing at the Dresden Academy. During the First World war were conscripted, despite his illness, and for several years he worked as a draftsman at the factory. He was fascinated by the movement mechanisms, and their similarity with the movements of the human body. In 1918 Schwitters began to create works of art out of garbage. His style he called Merz, and in 1923, publishes a magazine of the same name. At the same time the artist is engaged in advertising and graphic design. In 1937, the Nazis recognized the work of Schwitters "degenerate," and he moved to Norway and then to Britain. For several years he spent in the prison camps of the Germans and the Austrians, continuing to create works from scrap materials. The artist died the next day after receiving British citizenship.

Especially the artist Kurt Schwitters: he created his collages of most of the rubbish collected on the streets, broken and broken things, scraps of paper. In his published works, he went against many years of tradition, the positioning of the visual elements and the text completely randomly.

Famous paintings of Kurt Schwitters: "New Merz picture", "Santa Claus", "Aphorism".

Author: Eugene Sidelnikov