Book Description
There is scarcely an artist working today, provided they use materials other than paint, who does not refer to Kurt Schwitters in some way. In his bold and wide-ranging experiments, his prodigious collages and ground-breaking environments, he can be seen as the grandfather of pop art, happenings, concept art, Fluxus, multimedia art, and even postmodernism--yet only certain parts of his immensely varied pictorial work have been thoroughly investigated. From the Dadaist collages to the final, partial incarnation of the Merzbau in the Lake District of England, Schwitters's oeuvre is here documented and properly acknowledged for the first time in a three-volume catalogue raisonné, of which this is the second installment. More than 4,000 works produced between 1905 and 1948, among them numerous previously unpublished, destroyed and lost pictures and paintings, are presented in this authoritative compendium, following worldwide research and a complete viewing of his artistic estate. The artist's works are ordered chronologically and then according to genre, and illustrated in black and white; select representative works appear in color. This second volume covers the years from 1923 to 1936, a period in which Schwitters added steadily to his Hanover Merzbau and in which his work reflected his struggle with international constructivism. The volume ends with his 1937 flight from Germany. This publication is edited by the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, with the help of Karin Orchard and Isabel Schulz on behalf of the Norddeutsche Landesbank and the Stadtsparkasse Hanover.Also Available:Kurt Schwitters Catalogue Raisonné: Volume I 1905-1922Hbk, 10 x 12 in. / 552 pgs / 150 color and 950 b&wISBN: 30-7757-0926-6 $250Hatje Cantz PublishersForthcoming in 2004:Kurt Schwitters Catalogue Raisonné: Volume 3 1937-1948Hatje Cantz Publishers A person so complicated and paradoxical as Schwitters cannot be tackled in a few words. --Hannah Höch Edited by Karin Orchard and Isabel Schulz. Hardcover, 10.25 x 11.75 in., 584 pages, 110 color, 885 b/w illustrations