Ohne Titel (Die Handlung spielt in Theben). 1922.
Collage. Paper and red chalks on backing cardboard.
Signed in the lower left. 16.3 x 20 cm (6.4 x 7.8 in). Backing board: 22 x 25,7 cm (8,26 x 9,84 in).
[MH].
• A characteristic "Merz drawing" by the important Dada protagonist, particularly notable for its rare landscape format.
• After initial attempts at Impressionism and Constructivism, Schwitters developed his signature pictorial language in his "Merzzeichnungen".
• Shortly after the birth of abstract painting, Schwitters took a crucial step by banishing any style as an artistic signature from his creations.
• Schwitters' famous “Merz drawings” are now part of numerous important museum collections, including the Tate Modern, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

PROVENANCE: Charlotte Weidler, New York (1962-1986).
From a Swiss collection.

EXHIBITION: Kurt Schwitters, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio (Texas) / Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena/California, cat. no. 7 ( illustrated) / The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester (New Hempshire) / The Phillips Collection, Washington / University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (Minnesota) / J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville (Kentucky), 1962/63.
Kurt Schwitters, Chalette Gallery, New York, October/November 1963, cat. No. 6 ( illustrated).
Kurt Schwitters, Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf, March 1971, cat. no. 2 ( illustrated).
Kurt Schwitters, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 10 - October 1, 1985, illu. 84 / Tate Gallery, London, November 6, 1985-January 5, 1986, cat. no. 89 / Sprengel Museum, Hanover, February 4 - April 20, 1986, cat. no. 126 (illustrated).

LITERATURE: Karin Orchard, Isabel Schulz, Kurt Schwitters. Catalogue raisonné, published by Sprengel Museum Hanover, vol. 1: 1905-1922, Ostfildern 2000, no. 1038 (illustrated).
--
Simone Frigerio, Importance de Schwitters (1887-1948), in: Aujourd'hui, vol. 47, Paris 1964, pp. 14-17 (illustrated).
John Elderfield, The Early Work of Kurt Schwitters, in: Artforum, vol. X, issue 3, 1971, pp. 54-67 ( illustrated).
Micheal Erlhoff (ed.), Kurt Schwitters Almanach 3, Kulturamt der Stadt Hannover 1982-1991.
Udo Liebelt, Kurt Schwitters. Werke und Themen, Hanover 1986 ( illustrated).
John Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, Düsseldorf 1987 (illustrated).
Dorothea Dietrich, The Collection of Kurt Schwitters. Tradition and Innovation, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1993/1995 ( illustrated).
Dorothea Dietrich, Les Habits neufs de la tradition. Schwitters les femmes et les collages, in: Les Cahiers du Musée national d'art moderne, vol. 51, Paris 1995, pp. 81-105 ( illustrated).
Kim Behm, Die frühen Nachkriegszeichnungen von Kurt Schwitters (1918-1923), unpublished typescript; master's thesis, University of Marburg 1997.
Isabelle Ewig, Kurt Schwitters Oxymore ou l'art de la contradiction, unpublished typescript, PhD thesis, Sorbonne University, Paris 2000 (illustarted).

"I felt abssolutely free and I had to scream my elation out into the world. Out of thrift, I took what I could find, because we were an impoverished country. You can also shout with garbage, and that's what I did by gluing and nailing things together."
Kurt Schwitters on his "Merz" art.
Friedrich Lach (ed.), Kurt Schwitters. Das Literarische Werk, vol. 5, Cologne 1973-1981, p. 335.