Kurt Schwitters

Ernst Schwitters, Lysaker (the artist's son; by descent from the artist in 1948)
Acquired from the above by the late owner in 1979

Stockholm, Konstsalongen Samlaren im Konstnärshuset; Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst und Kunstforeningen; London, Marlborough Fine Art; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum und Kölnischer Kunstverein; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen & Milan, Toninelli Arte Moderna, Kurt MERZ Schwitters, 1962-64, no. 104 (in Stockholm); no. 169 (in London); no. 172 (in Cologne & Rotterdam); no. 75 (in Milan)
Los Angeles, University of California Los Angeles; New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery; Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art & Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Kurt Schwitters. Retrospective, 1965, no. 130
Dallas, Museum of Fine Arts; San Francisco, Museum of Art & Saint Louis, City Art Museum, Kurt Schwitters. A Retrospective Exhibition, 1965-66, no. 121, illustrated in the catalogue
Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle; Berlin, Akademie der Künste; Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie; Basel, Kunsthalle; Hamburg, Kunstverein, Kurt Schwitters, 1971, no. 196
London, Marlborough Fine Art; Zurich, Marlborough Galerie; New York, Marlborough Gallery; Rome, Marlborough Galleria d'Arte & Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Kurt Schwitters, 1972-73, no. 58, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Edinburgh, New 57 Gallery, Kurt Schwitters. Merzbilder, 1976, no. 17, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst; Essen, Museum Folkwang & Zurich, Kunsthaus, Die Dreissiger Jahre. Schauplatz Deutschland, 1977, no. 168, illustrated in the catalogue
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Kurt Schwitters. Die späten Werke, 1985, no. 12, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; London, Tate Gallery & Hanover, Sprengel Museum, Kurt Schwitters, 1985-86, no. 158 (no. 214 in Hanover), illustrated in the catalogue

John Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, London, 1985, illustrated in colour pl. XXIII
Karin Orchard & Isabel Schulz, Kurt Schwitters, Catalogue raisonné, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2003, vol. II, no. 1889, illustrated p. 401

Laid down on the artist's original mount, which has stained with age. This work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly less yellow and crisper in the original.
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The more structured and painterly appearance of Ohne Titel (Pino Antoni) reflects the influence of Paris-based artists such as Jean Arp, Le Corbusier, Piet Mondrian, František Kupka and Auguste Herbin. Schwitters knew these pioneering abstractionists through the Abstraction-Création group, of which he was a member, and through the publication Cercle et Carré, to which he contributed. At this time Schwitters was also regularly visiting his son Ernst in Norway and the organic, pure monochrome forms of the present work may well have been inspired by the rural scenery around Lysaker, just outside Oslo.  

Throughout his career, Schwitters remained devoted to his concept of Merz, particularly in refence to his art: 'The word Merz denotes essentially the combination of all conceivable materials for artistic purposes, and technically the principle of equal evaluation of the individual materials… the artist creates through choice, distribution and metamorphosis of the materials’ (Kurt Schwitters quoted in J. Elderfield, op. cit., p. 50). This principle extended even to the interior of his house - which he christened  Merzbau - to which he constantly added found objects and abstract shapes.