SCHWITTERS, KURT1887 Hannover - 1948 Ambleside
Title: Mz 406.
Date: 1921.
Paper collage on thin card. 17 x 14cm. Mounted in mat (27,8 x 22,5cm). Signed lower right
on mat: K. Schwitters. Beside that dated by a hand other than that of the artist. Lower
left inscribed by a hand other than that of the artists: Mz (very faded) 106 Magdeburg.
Verso of the mat lower right inscribed by the artist: Mz. 406. netto 1000M. Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Enclosed to the work is an expertise by Dr. Isabel Schulz, Sprengel Museum Hannover, and Dr. Karin Orchard dated 22 September 2023. The work listed under the catalogue raisonné number A10 is no longer listed as questionable in the "Kurt Schwitters Catalogue Raisonné", but is given the new catalogue number 896b.
Provenance:
- Private collection Germany
Literature:
- Orchard, Karin/Schulz, Isabel: Kurt Schwitters - Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1 1905-1922, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000, cat. rais. no. 896b (formerly cat. rais. no. A10).
- Kurt Schwitters is considered the most important representative of the avant-garde Dada movement.
- The collages ("Merzzeichnungen") are among the artist's most sought-after works on the international art market
"Kaputt war sowieso alles, und es galt aus den Scherben Neues zu bauen. Das aber ist Merz."
(Kurt Schwitters quoted after: Lach, Friedhelm (ed.): Kurt Schwitters - Das literarische Werk, vol. 5. Manifeste und kritische Prosa, Cologne 1981, p. 335).