Kurt Schwitters

Ernst Schwitters, Lysaker (by descent from the artist in 1948)
Marlborough Fine Art, London (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above in 1968

Stockholm, Konstsalongen, Samlaren im Konstnärshuset; Copenhagen, Statens Museum fur Kunst un Kunstforeningen; London, Marlborough Fine Art; Cologne, Walraf-Richartz-Museum und Kölnischer Kunstverein; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen; Milan, Toninelli Arte Moderna & Rome, Marlborough Galleria d’Arte, Kurt MERZ Schwitters 1887-1948 Retrospektivt, 1962-64, no. 53/87/88, illustrated 
New York, Helen Serber/La Boetie, Kurt Schwitters. Words and Works, 1985, no. 17, illustrated 

Simón Márchan, “La actualidad de Kurt Schwitters" in Goya, 1974, vol. 121, p. 28, illustrated
Karin Orchard & Isabel Schulz, Eds., Kurt Schwitters, Catalogue raisonné, Band 2 1923-1936, Hannover & Bonn, 2003, no. 1184, p. 75, illustrated 

Executed on cream colored card which has been affixed to a mount with adhesive along the perimeter and several places of its verso. The card is a bit stained and dirty, particularly in the white ground and the card is undulating slightly on its mount. There are a couple of extremely minor nicks along the left edge and a few scattered pindot losses within the red pigments. The work is in good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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The Collection of Edward Albee includes two significant works by Kurt Schwitters, the present lot from the 1920s and lot 78 from the 1940s, which exemplify the extraordinary artist’s diverse oeuvre and determination to achieve Gesamtkunstwerk, or a synthesis of all the arts.

Schwitters rejected the conventional values of the art establishment in favor of a deliberately nonsensical and deconstructive approach, which he believed would eventually lead to reconstruction. Declaring that “Everything had broken down in any case and new things had to be made out of the fragments” (quoted in L. Dickerman, Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York, Paris, Washington, D.C., 2005, p. 159), he developed his own radically personal form of expression which he called Merz – reportedly taking the name from “Commerz Bank” which appeared on a scrap of paper he used in one of his own Dada collages. Despite this, he had a deep connection to the formal values of art, and starting in 1922 he showed the influence of the International Constructivists, particularly evident in the present lot. The artist must certainly have seen the 1922 Van Dieman exhibition of Russian art, including a large group of Suprematist works by Malevich and many examples of the Russian Constructivist School. Ohne Titel (Konstruktion mit Rotem Kreis und Schwarzem Dreieck) sees Schwitters emulating Malevich’s shapes and the principles of Elementarism, whereby works of art are constructed from basic geometric forms viewed as universal constants. He distills the intrinsic compositional geometry of his collages to a few bold shapes in black and red tempera.