Page 47 - Studio International - May 1969

Schwitters reached his mature period, have a cally at least, be made equally well in paint.
very spontaneous and improvised look. One The identity of the object is what makes the
could think the material was scattered at ran- difference. That identity, as a real thing from
dom and stuck down where it fell. Gradually the real world, remains clearly recognizable
the improvisation becomes more organized and because of its presence, the world of the
and the composition more simple. The Ur- picture and the world of the spectator are
sonate follows a similar line, beginning as an overlapped. The 'live' material occupies both
improvised, extendable performance, pro- worlds simultaneously and unites them.
ceeding through innumerable refinings and The essence of Schwitters' art is in the rela-
culminating in its organized, notational form tionship between art and life. The Merzbau
published in Merz in 1932. makes this very clear. The work explains its
Beside his better-known work, throughout his making. It is about the environment and
life Schwitters painted from nature, as a way, Schwitters' living in it. It is made out of the
he felt, of replenishing his imagination. After environment, it is a picture of the environ-
1933 when he began visiting Norway regu- ment and it is the environment. He collected
larly, this interest intensified. In hard times in such quantities of stuff from the streets of
Norway and England he was able to turn his Hanover that the heaps around his house
interest to utilitarian ends by selling por- began, almost independently, to form into a
traits and landscapes to make a living, but his great construction. The construction grew into
experience of landscape affected his other a work of art which, between the rubbish and
work. Necessarily, a change comes over his the architecture, expresses much about the
collages with his change of environment, life of and in a city. At the same time its
because of the found material, but the charac- relationship to the larger environment is made
ter of form and colour, the stippled textures into identity by Schwitters' living in it, and it
and broken patterns of light and shade which is that living in it which causes the stuff drawn
are evident in some works of this time reflect from the environment to become the work of
his increased concern with the natural scene. art about the environment.
This development, if such it can be called, is The same holds true of the Merzbarn. It is
very evident in England and the Merzbarn made out of the place where it stood. It con-
marks its highest point. tains all sorts of stuff from the barn, the
When considering these developments it is as garden and the countryside around. This
well to remember that Schwitters worked con- material is built into a work whose appearance
currently in all his many styles, and such is very different from the Merzbau. Most
changes as took place appear more as addi- obvious is the rough texture of loosely applied
tions to his repertoire than as developments plaster, as opposed to the smooth finish in the Top
proper. Merzbau, which Schwitters found to har- the Merzbarn at 'Cylinders' in 1963 (photo
Richard Hamilton)
As well as collage, painting and sculpture his monize with the rough walls of the barn. The
Centre
repertoire included shouting and singing, the character of shape and line is organic, not a detail of the central section to the right of the
public performance, typographical design (for architectural, the relief; though shallow, arti- half elliptical picture frame taken in 1965 when the
process of decay was much advanced
the Gunther Wagner Company), publishing culates the space so that it runs and flows, (photo Mark Lancaster)
his magazine Merz and travelling about reinforcing the rhythmical pattern, punctua-
Below
Europe spreading the Dada message. Al- ted as in Hanover with dark accents, which the restored Merzbarn in Newcastle 1968
though he was recognized by Zurich, he was grows up towards the roof light. Most of the (photo Michael Brick)
never a member of Berlin Dada, due it seems found material is used for its shape alone, its
to Heulsenbeck's antipathy to Schwitters' identity concealed with a skin of plaster and
bourgeois dress and origins, and in retrospect paint, but some objects are displayed, clearly
this seems appropriate, for though a Dada in recognizable. They include a twig, canes,
spirit he was by nature out of sympathy with some string, small stones, a piece of gutter-
the political activities of Dada and its 'anti- pipe, a root, the rose of a miniature watering
art' ideas. His aim was extension of his can and, now missing, a bunch of gentians, a
creative activity, not elimination of it. As he selection of objects which add up precisely to
wrote in Sturmbühne No. 8 'The composite a garden.
merz work of art, par excellence, is the merz In view of this relationship between the work
stage... the merz stage knows only the fusing and the environment, it is not surprising that,
of all factors ...materials for the stage set are in its new situation, the Merzbarn has lost
all solid, liquid and gaseous bodies ... materials much of its magic. On the other hand, in the
for the score are all tones and noises... barn it would have decayed completely within
materials for the text are all experiences that a few years. There is something attractive
provoke the intelligence and emotions....' about the idea of letting it rot and return to
This makes it clear why Schwitters was a the state from which it arose. (One wonders if,
master of collage rather than some other in Lysaker or Hanover, some latter-day Mer-
medium. The presence of 'live' material drawn zist may utilize the rubble of an earlier Merz-
directly from the real world alters the impact bau in a new living Merz construction.) But
of the picture. The object, scrap of paper or one could not stand by watching it fall into
whatever, becomes a formal element in the ruin and not act to save the work of a great
picture, making, by its shape, colour and man. q
texture a certain effect which could, theoreti-