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Lot Essay
Extracted from the word Kommerz, "Merz" contained for Schwitters not only emotional associations of its own but also the idea of elimination, ausmerzen, meaning that he was using in his art what others had rejected and thrown away. This idea of elimination was essential to Schwitters for respecting this process meant achieving the essence of pure abstraction.
Schwitters aimed to achieve an artistic synthesis using banal elements which he would assemble together within a very tight geometric composition. Executed in 1921, Stuben Balken anticipates the kind of rigorous geometry which characterizes Schwitters' art after 1922. The forms are cleanly cut, producing an image where strong diagonals and clear verticals marry each other harmoniously. The different textures incorporated bring a variety of weights and forces to the surface plane. Perfectly balanced throughout, the fragments of textiles and papers constitute, through their careful combination, a new aesthetic order of pure abstraction where materials function not as representations of external reality but as representative tokens. Thus, free from all objective reality, it is the adjustment of the materials themselves that gives the work its form. Here, forms and materials are one.
Schwitters would further stress his commitment to abstraction by stating that, "the picture is a self-contained work of art. It refers to nothing outside of itself. Nor can a consistent work of art refer to anything outside itself without loosening its ties to art... A consistent work of art must be abstract." (J. Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, London, 1985, p. 88.)
Schwitters aimed to achieve an artistic synthesis using banal elements which he would assemble together within a very tight geometric composition. Executed in 1921, Stuben Balken anticipates the kind of rigorous geometry which characterizes Schwitters' art after 1922. The forms are cleanly cut, producing an image where strong diagonals and clear verticals marry each other harmoniously. The different textures incorporated bring a variety of weights and forces to the surface plane. Perfectly balanced throughout, the fragments of textiles and papers constitute, through their careful combination, a new aesthetic order of pure abstraction where materials function not as representations of external reality but as representative tokens. Thus, free from all objective reality, it is the adjustment of the materials themselves that gives the work its form. Here, forms and materials are one.
Schwitters would further stress his commitment to abstraction by stating that, "the picture is a self-contained work of art. It refers to nothing outside of itself. Nor can a consistent work of art refer to anything outside itself without loosening its ties to art... A consistent work of art must be abstract." (J. Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, London, 1985, p. 88.)