Sale: 415 / Modern Art, June 06. 2014 in Munich Lot 50

 

50
Kurt Schwitters
Ohne Titel (Spritzen Farbe), 1927.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 35,000 / $ 37,800
Sold:
€ 42,700 / $ 46,116

(incl. surcharge)
Ohne Titel (Spritzen Farbe). 1927.
Oil on delicate light brown paper, firmly laid on backing board, firmly laid on original backing.
Orchard/Schulz 1525. Signed and dated lower left of backing board. Verso of original backing inscribed with provisional oeuvre number "1927,439" by a hand other than that of the artist. 11,8 x 8,8 cm (4,6 x 3,4 in), size of sheet. Original backing: 22,8 x 16,5 cm (8,9 x 6,4 in).
[KP].
One of the rare not collaged paper works from the late 1920s, hard to find on the international auction market.

PROVENANCE: Ernst Schwitters, Lysaker (1948-1965, artist's son, inherited, with label on verso of original backing).
Private ownership Stockholm (acquired in 1965/67).

EXHIBITION: Kurt Schwitters, Kestner-Gesellschaft Hanover 1956 (except catalog, with exhibition label on verso of original backing).
Kurt Schwitters. "Aphorismer" 1918-1947. Collage och relief, Konstsalongen Samlaren, Stockholm 1965, cat. no.43 (with illu. on p. 57).
Kurt Schwitters i svensk ägo, Konstsalongen Samlaren, Stockholm, 28 October - 13 November, 1967, cat. no. 23.

Kurt Schwitters attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hanover from 1908 to 1909 and subsequently studied at the Kunstakademie in Dresden. The long academic education he had in Dresden, primarily under the Frans Hals-oriented Carl Bantzer, seemed to prepare for a rather conventional painter's career. Accordingly, his early works display little influence by the modern age. In 1917 the 30 year-old artist was drafted into military service, which he spent in the orderly room, due to his suffering from epilepsy. He was discharged after four months. The impressions of the war and the inflation made him a modern artist, who even left Expressionism behind; his first collages emerged in 1918, for which Schwitters used litter found by chance. His art and literary texts became a Dadaist institution in Hanover, which he called 'Merz', a fragment of the word 'Commerzbank'. 'Anna Blume', a collection of poems and prosaic texts published in 1919, made him famous far beyond Hanover's boundaries.

From 1923 on he worked as a commercial artist, graphic designer and typographer for several companies from Hanover and beyond. In 1927 he founded the 'ring neuer werbegestalter' (circle of new commercial artists) together with Cesar Domela, Lázlo Moholy-Nagy and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, in which Willi Baumeister and Walter Dexel also joined. Apart from this professional work, he continued the collages and material pictures of the "Merz"-series. In the mid-30's he was successful on an international level for the first time; in 1937 he emigrated to Norway. His exile in Norway was followed by his escape from the German troops to England, where his isolated position, from which he already suffered back in Norway, did not improve significantly. Schwitters died in Ambleside (Westmorland) on 8 January 1948. It is only after his death that his life's work is appreciated internationally. Schwitters was far ahead of his time and strongly influenced the art of assemblage of the neo-dadaist artists, like Robert Rauschenberg for example.




50
Kurt Schwitters
Ohne Titel (Spritzen Farbe), 1927.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 35,000 / $ 37,800
Sold:
€ 42,700 / $ 46,116

(incl. surcharge)