KURT SCHWITTERS | Mz 430

Curt Valentin Gallery, New York (acquired by 1952)
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (acquired in 1952)
Acquired from the above on December 10, 1956

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery & Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, Collage, Painting, Relief & Sculpture by Schwitters, 1952, no. 18, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, 57 Collages, 1956, no. 13, illustrated in the catalogue
Hempstead, Hofstra College, Annual Contemporary Arts Festival, 1962, n.n.
Queens, The Lighthouse Queens Center, Twentieth Century Masters from the Collections of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Donald S. Stralem and Prominent Galleries, 1962, n.n.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Twentieth-Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection, 1969, no. 135, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., The Protean Century 1870/1970, 1970, n.n.

Dorothy Canning Miller, ed., The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art, New York, 1981, illustrated in color p. 90 
Karin Orchard & Isabel Schulz, eds., Kurt Schwitters, Catalogue raisonné, vol. I, Hanover, 2000, no. 992, illustrated p. 486

The work is in very good condition. The work is executed on buff colored paper. The sheet is glued to a window matte around the perimeter by the artist. There is a matte stain around the image on the recto. There are scattered stains and scattered surface abrasions around the image. There are artist pinholes in all four corners. There is a minor tear and lifting to a collage element in the lower left corner of the sheet.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Schwitters’ collages were a response to the destruction of the old world order and the challenges of life amidst the debris of a modern, industrial, and war-torn Europe. Torn packaging inscribed with “Feine 100 gr.” (translating to “fine”) features prominently in Mz 430. While the product itself is unidentifiable, Schwitters’ commentary on the fragile balance in which German society found itself after the Great War is easily discernable. His artistic practice in the early 1920s could be interpreted as an attempt to discover a hidden order amidst political, social and economic chaos, through the literal gathering of scraps, found objects and discarded materials to make something new, holistic and full of life. Writing about the artist’s later works, John Elderfield comments: “The creation of order, as much as the order itself, was the subject of what he did: the sense of competition between the artist and his surroundings that is given along with the order adds drama and excitement even to his smallest creations...For Schwitters, it was a kind of struggle that admitted no final or single victory, but had to be fought out daily as new surroundings, new styles, new influences kept on altering the context in which he worked. Neither this nor the order to which he was committed ever changed. The point of order he wrested from the tumult of his early revolutionary years became the ideal to which he was henceforth committed. The fight for that order continued throughout his life” (John Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, New York, 1985, p. 240).