Kurt Schwitters

1887–1948

Kurt Schwitters, ‘Opened by Customs’ 1937–8
Opened by Customs 1937–8
© DACS, 2018
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In Tate Britain

Walk Through British Art: 1940

Free entry
In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Rooms

View by Appointment

Biography

Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany.

Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography, and what came to be known as installation art. He is most famous for his collages, called Merz Pictures.

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Abstraction-Création Art brut Art Concret 35 more art terms …

Artworks

Kurt Schwitters, ‘Opened by Customs’ 1937–8

Kurt Schwitters Opened by Customs

1937–8
T00214
Kurt Schwitters, ‘Picture of Spatial Growths - Picture with Two Small Dogs’ 1920–39

Kurt Schwitters Picture of Spatial Growths - Picture with Two Small Dogs

1920–39
T03863
Kurt Schwitters, ‘The Proposal’ 1942

Kurt Schwitters The Proposal

1942
T12398
Kurt Schwitters, ‘(Relief in Relief)’ c.1942–5

Kurt Schwitters (Relief in Relief)

c.1942–5
On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art T01259
Kurt Schwitters, ‘The Autumn Crocus’ 1926–8, reconstructed 1958

Kurt Schwitters The Autumn Crocus

1926–8, reconstructed 1958
T03766
Kurt Schwitters, ‘Aphorism’ 1923

Kurt Schwitters Aphorism

1923
T12393
Kurt Schwitters, ‘Magic’ c.1936–40

Kurt Schwitters Magic

c.1936–40
T12396
Kurt Schwitters, ‘Red Wire Sculpture’ 1944

Kurt Schwitters Red Wire Sculpture

1944
On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art T05767
See all 27

Artist as subject

John Christie, ‘Homage to Ursonate’ 1981

John Christie Homage to Ursonate

1981
View by appointment P07603
Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), recipient: George Gatey & Son Solicitors (Windermere, UK), ‘Letter to Geo. Gatey & Son solicitors from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art’ 25 February 1948

Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), recipient: George Gatey & Son Solicitors (Windermere, UK) Letter to Geo. Gatey & Son solicitors from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art

25 February 1948
TGA 9510/3/1/15
Unknown person(s), ‘List of Schwitters’ works with measurements and dates with photocopy’ 10 March 1947

Unknown person(s) List of Schwitters’ works with measurements and dates with photocopy

10 March 1947
TGA 9510/3/3/30
Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), ‘Letter from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art to Geo. Gatey & Son about the sale of Schwitters’ work, ‘Paper Clouds’ and interest from the Pinacotheca Gallery in obtaining some of Schwitters’ work’ 8 February 1949

Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA) Letter from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art to Geo. Gatey & Son about the sale of Schwitters’ work, ‘Paper Clouds’ and interest from the Pinacotheca Gallery in obtaining some of Schwitters’ work

8 February 1949
TGA 9510/3/1/34
Unknown person(s), ‘Printed image of ‘Das Herz geht zur Mühle’ by Kurt Schwitters’ [1982]

Unknown person(s) Printed image of ‘Das Herz geht zur Mühle’ by Kurt Schwitters

[1982]
TGA 9510/4/10/2
Ernst Schwitters, recipient: Edith “Wanty” Thomas, ‘Letter from Ernst Schwitters to Edith Thomas (‘Wanty’) regarding the sale, preservation and inheritance of Kurt Schwitters’ work’ 12 February 1949

Ernst Schwitters, recipient: Edith “Wanty” Thomas Letter from Ernst Schwitters to Edith Thomas (‘Wanty’) regarding the sale, preservation and inheritance of Kurt Schwitters’ work

12 February 1949
TGA 9510/3/3/16
Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), recipient: Edith “Wanty” Thomas, ‘Letter from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art to Edith Thomas about Schwitters’ work and funding’ 1 April 1948

Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), recipient: Edith “Wanty” Thomas Letter from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art to Edith Thomas about Schwitters’ work and funding

1 April 1948
TGA 9510/3/1/22
Margaret Miller, recipient: Edith “Wanty” Thomas, ‘Letter from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art to Edith Thomas about Schwitters’ funeral expenses’ 28 January 1948

Margaret Miller, recipient: Edith “Wanty” Thomas Letter from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art to Edith Thomas about Schwitters’ funeral expenses

28 January 1948
TGA 9510/3/1/10
collection owner: Kurt Schwitters, ‘Receipt and letters between Midland Bank, Geo. Gatey & Son and Edith Thomas’ 21–23 January 1948

Collection owner: Kurt Schwitters Receipt and letters between Midland Bank, Geo. Gatey & Son and Edith Thomas

21–23 January 1948
TGA 9510/3/1/8
See all 165

Film and audio
Look Closer

Schwitters Interned

Discover Kurt Schwitters' response to being in a WW2 British Internment Camp

Listen

Schwitters in context: The British years – Part 2

This half-day conference brings together leading scholars in the field to discuss Kurt Schwitters’s British period and its broader ...
Listen

Curator's talk: Schwitters in Britain

Curator of the exhibition Schwitters in Britain Emma Chambers will give an exclusive insight into the creation of the show ...
TateShots

Contemporary Responses to Kurt Schwitters

Fictional Grandparents and an office designed by Frank Lloyd-Wright feature in two contemporary artistic responses to Kurt Schwitters

Features

Pablo Picasso, ‘Still Life’ 1914
Art Term

Assemblage

Assemblage is art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or ...

Raoul Hausmann, ‘The Art Critic’ 1919–20
Art Term

Dada

Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and ...

Kurt Schwitters, ‘(Relief in Relief)’ c.1942–5
Art Term

Merz

Merz is a nonsense word invented by the German dada artist Kurt Schwitters to describe his collage and assemblage works ...

Digital image of a portrait of Marlow Moss standing by a direction post
Tate Etc

The lonely radical: Marlow Moss at Tate St Ives

Lucy Howarth

At one stage the British artist Marlow Moss was at the heart of the European avant-garde, living in Paris where ...

Film still from Melanie Smith's Xilitla 2010
Tate Etc

Mexican encounters: Tate Acquisition I

Melanie Smith

Melanie Smith’s video Xilitla, which focuses on Edward James’s extraordinary gothic Mexican garden Las Pozas de Xilitla, was ...

Kurt Schwitters with Edith Thomas and Bill Pierce at Cylinders Farm, Ambleside, c.1947
Tate Etc

Modernists don't die in Ambleside: Schwitters in Britain at Tate Britain

Paul Farley

Was this the same Kurt Schwitters, founder of Merz, collaborator with Dadaists, Cubists and Constructivists, who won first, second and ...

TATE ETC. issue 27 (Spring 2013)
Tate Etc

Tate Etc. issue 27: Spring 2013

Tate Etc. issue 27, Spring 2013; online edition of Tate's magazine
Animating the Archives
Blog

Archives & Access project: Animating the Archives – a new video series

Rebecca Sinker

Transforming Tate Britain, Archives & Access
Tom Ravenscroft, BBC Radio 6 Music DJ
Blog

Schwitters in Britain: Tom Ravenscroft's playlist

Louise Cohen and Sofie Roberts

We asked Radio 6 music DJ Tom Ravenscroft to make a playlist to celebrate the final week of Schwitters in ...

Rob showing his research on the Merzbarn to John Elderfield, who is a Schwitters expert and Chief Curator Emeritus at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
Blog

Schwitters in Britain: The Merzbarn Wall in Newcastle

Rob Airey

Rob Airey, Keeper of Art at the Hatton Gallery shares his experience of looking after Kurt Schwitters's Merzbarn wall ...

Sketches, letters, etc.

Ernst Schwitters, ‘Photograph of Kurt Schwitters painting near Djupvassjytta, Norway’ 1933

Ernst Schwitters Photograph of Kurt Schwitters painting near Djupvassjytta, Norway

1933
TGA 9510/5/2
Edith “Wanty” Thomas, ‘Photograph of the exterior, including the blue plaque, of Schwitters’ former home, 39 Westmoreland Road, Barnes, London’ [1970s]

Edith “Wanty” Thomas Photograph of the exterior, including the blue plaque, of Schwitters’ former home, 39 Westmoreland Road, Barnes, London

[1970s]
TGA 9510/5/16
Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), recipient: George Gatey & Son Solicitors (Windermere, UK), ‘Letter to Geo. Gatey & Son solicitors from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art’ 25 February 1948

Margaret Miller, Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), recipient: George Gatey & Son Solicitors (Windermere, UK) Letter to Geo. Gatey & Son solicitors from Margaret Miller at the Museum of Modern Art

25 February 1948
TGA 9510/3/1/15
Unknown person(s), ‘List of Schwitters’ works with measurements and dates with photocopy’ 10 March 1947

Unknown person(s) List of Schwitters’ works with measurements and dates with photocopy

10 March 1947
TGA 9510/3/3/30
Unknown person(s), ‘Printed image of ‘Das Herz geht zur Mühle’ by Kurt Schwitters’ [1982]

Unknown person(s) Printed image of ‘Das Herz geht zur Mühle’ by Kurt Schwitters

[1982]
TGA 9510/4/10/2
De Branding, ‘Exhibition catalogue entitled, ‘De Branding’ about an exhibition featuring Schwitters’ work in Rotterdam in November-December 1922’ November 1922

De Branding Exhibition catalogue entitled, ‘De Branding’ about an exhibition featuring Schwitters’ work in Rotterdam in November-December 1922

November 1922
TGA 9510/4/8/3
See all 151

Related art terms

Abstraction-Création Art brut Art Concret Bauhaus Berlin Secession Blaue Reiter, Der Branding, De Brücke Constructivism Cubism Dada De Stijl Environmental art Expressionism Fancy picture Fauvism Grand manner High Renaissance Impressionism Installation art Kinetic art Merz Nabis, Les Naive Neo-impressionism Neo-plasticism Performance art Pittura metafisica (metaphysical art) Post-impressionism Realism Romanticism Salon des Réalités Nouvelles Section d’Or Society of Independent Artists Société Anonyme Suprematism Surrealism Vorticism

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