Sale: 533 / Modern Art Day Sale and Gerlinger Collection, Dec. 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 531

 

531
Kurt Schwitters
Mz. 59. Continental, 1926.
Collage with paper on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 68,750 / $ 74,250

(incl. surcharge)
Mz. 59. Continental. 1926.
Collage with paper on cardboard.
Orchard/Schulz 1370. Signed, dated and titled "continental“ on the cardboard, as well as with the inscription "Mz. 59.“. Verso inscribed with the artist's address. 13.6 x 10.2 cm (5.3 x 4 in). Cardboard (visible area): 17,7 x 14 cm (7 x 5,5 in).
[AM].
• The "Merzzeichnungen“ (Merz Drawings) count among his most souight-after works on the international auction market.
• Characteristic work in particularly clear forms.
• Schwitter's famous "Merzzeichnungen“ are in many importnat museum collections, among them the Tate Modern, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York
.

PROVENANCE: Robert Michel, Vockenhausen (gifted from the artist).
Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin.
Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne (1990-1998, with the label on the reverse).
Private collection Germany (since 1998, presumably Galerie Fred Jahn, with the label on the reverse).

EXHIBITION: Kurt Schwitters, Galerie Michael Werner, New York October 4 - November 17, 1990, cat. no. 8 (with color illu. no. 8).
Achenbach Kunsthandel, Frankfurt a.M., 1991.
Kurt Schwitters, Achenbach Kunsthandel, Düsseldorf, November 15, 1993 - January 28, 1994 (no catalog).
Kurt Schwitters, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, November 24, 1994 - February 20, 1995, no number, p. 378.
Kurt Schwitters, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, April 6 - June 18, 1995, no number, p. 442.
Kurt Schwitters, Musée de Grenoble, September 16 - November 27, 1995.
Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich, 1998 (shown on the invitation card).
Stadsgalerij Heerlen, March 9 - June 8, 1997, cat. no. 19 (with color illu. p. 62, with the label on the reverse).

LITERATURE: Christie's, London, Auction of Impressionist and Modern Drawings and Watercolors, June 26, 1990, lot 141.

With his art and his literary texts, Kurt Schwitters founded his own Dada institution in Hanover, which he called "Merz", a word fragment of "Commerzbank" (Latin cum = with, merx = goods), one of the leading banks at the time. Our Merz drawing is one of the most expressive works from this extremely important chapter in art history. In these works, which are actually collages, there is an accumulation of the seemingly random. It is ultimately a well thought-out design of relics of various origins. In addition, there is an aestheticization of the useless, of leftovers, which, in a new combination, make up the artistic aspect of this work. With the collage, Schwitters invented a new image of everyday rubbish, snippets, tickets, receipts or scraps of sentences that appear constructive and informal, surreal and very real: he makes randomness subject to poetry. [AM]



531
Kurt Schwitters
Mz. 59. Continental, 1926.
Collage with paper on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 68,750 / $ 74,250

(incl. surcharge)