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Bader, Graham

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Index

Graham Bader

Poisoned Abstraction: Kurt Schwitters between Revolution and Exile

Index

Author

Graham Bader

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22638

Index

A

Abstraction-Création, Art Non-Figuratif, 124

Abstraction series (Schwitters), 35, 42, 46–47, 48

Abstraction No. 16 (Sleeping Crystal) (Abstraktion No. 16 [Schlafender Kristall]), 42, 43

Abstraction 19 (Unveiling) (Abstraktion 19 [Entschleierung]), 46

Abstraction 26 (Tender Symphony) (Abstraktion 26 [Zarte Sinfonie]), 46, 47, 48

Abstraction 148 (Abstraktion 148), 47

Blossoming Circles (Abstraction) (Blühende Kreise [Abstraktion]), 48

Adamson, Robert, 150

Newhaven Fishwife (with David Octavius Hill), 149, 149

Adorno, Theodor W., 13–14, 15, 170, 204n15

advertising, 11

foreshortened language of, 89

Schwitters’s collage practice and, 51, 76–79, 84, 89, 118–19

see also commercial design; Pelikan advertisements

“Aims of my Merz Art, The” (Schwitters), 184

All Quiet on the Western Front (film), 171–72

Anna Blume Gedichte (Anna Blume Poems) (Schwitters), 25–26

“Anna Blume, To” (poem), 21–26, 23, 28, 73

Anna Blume’s redness and, 24–25, 206n20

Benjamin’s notion of mimetic inhabitation and, 92

mixing of speech modes in, 24, 25

palindromic nature of Anna Blume’s first name and, 22, 92, 210n16

antidote. See Gegengift

Anthologie Dada (No. 4/5 of Dada), 52–53, 53, 209n81

Arbeiter (worker/s) poster, 50, 50

fragment of, at upper right of The Worker Picture, 26, 48–50, 51, 51–52, 71, 91

Arendt, Hannah, 31, 32, 44, 67, 206n32

Arp, Hans, 14, 35, 39, 53, 142, 209n79, 214nn28, 37

Duo-Collage series, 192, 192

assemblages, Merz. See Merz; Merz, titles of works

assemblages, sculptural. See sculptural

assemblages and columnar constructions

assemblages of 1930s–40s:

As with Picasso (Wie bei Picasso), 167, 167

The Körting Picture (Körtingbild), 176, 177–78

naturalistic abstraction in, 177–78, 184

New Merz Picture (Neues Merzbild), 163–68, 164, 165, 192

as manifesto work, 165, 168–69, 172, 182, 188, 192

older Merz compositions compared to, 163–66

onset of Schwitters’s exile and, 168–69

open form in, 163–65, 166

Schwitters’s emulation of Picasso and, 166–68, 216n4

stippled color surfaces in, 163, 165, 166–67, 172

Symphony for a Poet (?) (Sinfonie für einen Dichter [?]), 178, 178, 184

Untitled (Djupvasshytta, Relief) (Ohne Titel [Djupvasshytta, Relief]), 167, 167

Untitled (Merz Picture with Algae) (Ohne Titel [Merzbild mit Algen]), 162, 186, 187, 188

Untitled (Merz Picture with Teeth) (Ohne Titel [Merzbild mit Zähnen]), 178, 178, 184

With Old Rake (Mit alter Harke), 178

atmosphere rooms (Stimmungsräume), 153

B

Baader, Johannes, 44, 204n6, 214n22

The Great Plasto-Dia-Dada-Drama: Germany’s Rise and Fall (Das Grosse Plasto Dio Dada Drama: Deutschlands Grösse und Untergang), 133, 134

Bachofen, Johann Jakob, 96–97, 103

Baden, Max von, 29

Ball, Hugo, 209n95

Barbarossa Cave, Kyffhäuser Mountains, Germany, 137, 138, 214n29

Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 144, 213n8

Barthes, Roland, 142, 214n34

Bauhaus, 79, 88

Baumeister, Willi, 114

Behne, Adolf, 38, 207n44, 208n69, 215n47

Benjamin, Walter, 11–12, 84, 93, 96, 113, 116, 126, 142, 149–51, 157–59, 210–11n21, 215n59

“Berlin Childhood around 1900,” 158–59

“The Lamp,” 158, 159

“Little History of Photography,” 149–50

“On Language as Such and on the Language of Man,” 92

on mimetic inhabitation, 12, 92, 158–59, 160

“The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility,” 150–51

Berger, Erich, 25

Berlin Dada. See Dada, Berlin

Berliner Börsen-Courier, 129, 129, 130, 131, 139

Bertelsmann, Werner, 189

Big E, The. See sculptural assemblages and columnar constructions

“Big E, The” (Schwitters), 135, 142, 214n23

biomorphic images, 169, 177, 178–81

The Körting Picture (Körtingbild), 176, 177–78

Picture with Soft Rod (Bild mit weicher Stange), 178–81, 180, 217n23

Untitled (ord) (Ohne Titel [ord]), 177–81, 179, 180

Bissegger, Peter: Merzbau Hanover

reconstruction, 126–27, 127, 195, 213n14

Black Lives Matter, 67–68

Block, Albert, 35

Bois, Yve-Alain, 6–8

Bollmus, Reinhard, 172

borders and boundaries:

exile and, 169, 170, 183, 190–91

intensification of controls at, in wake of World War I, 189–90, 192–93

passport system and, 189, 189, 190, 191, 192–93, 218n38

Schwitters’s post-1930 works and, 184–85, 191–93, 217n30

Schwitters’s thinking about Merz and, 8–9, 12, 172–73, 183–85, 189–90, 193

Braque, Georges, 14

Brecht, Bertolt, 191

Breslin, David, 196

Brieger, Lothar, 63

Brown, Wendy, 67–68, 70, 71

Brugman, Til, 124

Buchheister, Carl, 109, 109

Burchartz, Max, 94

Busch, Wilhelm, 209n90

Butler, Judith, 196, 198

C

Cardinal, Roger, 203n13

Celler Volks-Möbel (Celle People’s Furniture), brochure for, 77–79, 78, 114

Central Committee of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, 32, 36

Chagall, Marc: Half Past Three [The Poet], 26, 28, 206n26

Christian religiosity:

Schwitters’s evocations of, 130–31, 144, 158

Shroud of Turin and, 145–48, 147, 148

see also reliquary elements

Der Cicerone, 26

cinema, 156, 157, 171–72

Clark, T. J., 84

Clovio, Giulio: “Deposition and the Shroud of Turin” of Giovanni Battista della Rovere, 147, 148

Club Dada, 39, 58, 69, 199

Cohn-Wiener, Ernst, 2, 3, 9, 13, 26, 207n42

collage:

Adorno’s aesthetic thinking and, 13–14, 15

advertising design and, 51, 76–79, 84, 89, 118–19

fragility and precariousness of, 196, 197

Grosz’s first incorporation of collage elements and, 39–42, 40

Hirschhorn’s constructions and, 197–201, 198–200

Schwitters’s 1918 compositions, 48

Drawing A2: House (Hansi) (Zeichnung A2: Haus [Hansi]), 48, 174

Drawing A6 (Zeichnung A6), 35, 35, 48, 79–80, 80

Schwitters’s 1919 invention of Merz and. See Merz; Merz, titles of works

Schwitters’s 1925 compositions, 105–7, 106, 107, 108–13, 110, 111, 116, 212n56

word Pelikan in, 108–11

Schwitters’s post-1930 compositions, 116, 172, 181

47.15 pine trees c 26, 181, 182

c 35 paper clouds, 181, 183

like an old master, 181, 181

Untitled (NTHER WAGNER HANOVER) (Ohne Titel [NTHER WAGNER HANNOVER]), 174, 174, 184

see also Merz

columnar constructions. See sculptural

assemblages and columnar constructions

commercial design, 93–119

Celler Volks-Möbel (Celle People’s Furniture) brochure, 77–79, 78, 114

emerging media landscape of interwar Germany and, 78–79

exhibition poster for Dammerstock housing estate, Karlsruhe, 114, 114

letterhead designs, 117, 117–18

Merz 11, Typoreklame/Pelikan-Nummer, 74, 93–94, 93–95, 97–106, 101, 102, 109, 114, 116, 117, 118

central spread of, 94, 95, 98, 99, 103, 103–4, 111, 117

critical reception of, 105, 105, 113, 212nn42, 44

logo, or signet, design for, 94, 95, 99–100, 103, 103–4, 111, 113, 114

modern, Schwitters’s promotion of, 113–114

notice for Hanover transit authority, 114–16, 115

Schwitters’s collage practice and, 51, 76–79, 84, 89, 118–19

see also Pelikan advertisements

Communism:

Dadaists’ manifesto and, 44–45

German Communist Party (KPD), 32, 33, 37

Construction for Noble Ladies. See Merz, titles of works

Constructivism, 17, 165

Council Congress (1918), 36

Council of People’s Deputies, 29–30, 31, 32, 33

antistrike poster produced by, 50

cubism, 13, 167

D

Dada, Berlin, 2, 15, 165, 199, 208n63

direct political action seen as artists’ primary task by, 37, 38, 42–43, 44–45

early Merz images’ connection to, 39–42

first public exhibition of (1919), 39

importance of, for Schwitters, 38–42

Merz’s aesthetic program and, 48–51

revolutionary appeals of, 43–45, 46

revolutionary/rotational language and motifs and, 43–45, 50–51, 52–58

Schwitters’s Merz collages and assemblages rejected by, 18–19

Schwitters’s negotiation between aesthetics of Der Sturm and, 11, 37–59, 69–70

“What Is Dada and What Does It Want in Germany?” manifesto of, 38, 42, 44–45

Dada, Zurich, 52, 191–92

Der Dada, 38, 44

“Dadaist Manifesto,” 18

“Dadaists against Weimar,” 44

Dammerstock housing estate, Karlsruhe, exhibition poster for, 114, 114

Defense League for German Culture, 169, 170–71

Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) traveling exhibition (1937), 168, 168, 192

Delaunay, Robert, 46

della Rovere, Giovanni Battista, 147, 148

Demos, T. J., 192

Derrida, Jacques, 203n5

De Stijl, 214nn28, 39

“Destruction of Militarism and the Abolition of Blind Obedience” (Hamburg Points), 31–32, 36

Dialectic of Enlightenment (Horkheimer and Adorno), 13, 15

Dickerman, Leah, 125, 207n45

Dietrich, Dorothea, 125, 204n13, 205n10, 209n1

divisionism, 166, 167, 173

Doesburg, Theo van, 112, 113, 169, 214n28

Dorner, Alexander, 153, 190, 216n79

Lissitzky’s Abstract Cabinet and, 151

Original and Facsimile exhibition and, 150, 151

Room of the Present project, 152–56, 154, 155, 216nn70, 71

Dreier, Katherine, 124, 145, 161, 213n8, 214n40

E

Ebert, Friedrich, 29–30, 31, 32, 33, 66–67, 69

Eichhorn, Emil, 33

Eigengift (literally meaning “own poison” [eigen + Gift]; generally rendered in English as “particular poison”), 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 47, 70, 83, 177, 185, 203nn5–7, 13, 204n14, 217n30

Eisner, Kurt, 29

Elderfield, John, 24, 125, 126, 164–65, 168, 185, 187, 203n13, 204n14

Enrie, Giuseppe: Shroud of Turin photographs, 146–47, 147

Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) traveling exhibition (1937), 168, 168, 192

Ernst, Max, 38, 209n81

exile:

borders and boundaries and, 169, 170, 183, 190–91

narrative imagination and, 170

New Merz Picture as announcement of, 168–69, 182, 188

of Schwitters, at home and abroad, 12, 142, 168–72, 177, 190–91, 192–93

F

“Feeling of Nationalism, The” (Schwitters), 72

figuration:

representation without, as described by Tzara, 89, 182

in Schwitters’s post-1931 works, 169, 172–82, 184–85, 187, 192

Film and Photo (Film und Foto) traveling exhibition (1929), 149

First International Dada Fair, Berlin (1920), 133, 134

Flechtheim, Alfred, 167

Frankfurter Zeitung, 149

Frankfurt opera, 114

Freikorps, 32, 33

Freud, Sigmund, 97, 100, 104, 112

Hemmung, Symptom und Angst (Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety), 97

Freudenthal, Hans, 190–91

Freudenthal, Susanna, 137, 144, 190–91, 214n27

Frick, Wilhelm, 172

Frühlicht, 128, 128–29

G

Gegengift (“antidote”), 15, 203n7

German Communist Party (KPD), 32, 33, 37

German Werkbund, 149

Gesamtkunstwerk, 131

Glaser, Curt, 39, 207nn53, 57

global pandemics, 196–97

Goebbels, Joseph, 171

Golyscheff, Yefim, 39, 42, 44

Gränert, Ernst, 130, 131

Groener, Wilhelm, 31, 32

Gropius, Walter, 114

Grosz, George, 33, 207nn57, 58

cover illustration for Die Pleite (Bankruptcy), 33, 34, 37

Germany: A Winter’s Fairy Tale (Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen), 39–42, 40

Günther Wagner (Pelikan parent company), 93–94, 99, 103, 105, 106, 113, 174, 211nn33, 40

H

Hahnepeter (Peter Rooster) (Schwitters), 113

Hamburg Points, 31–32, 36

handwriting/Handschrift, 79, 80, 94–96, 97, 103, 104, 107, 109–11, 114, 119

typewriter’s proliferation and, 107–9

Hanover:

arrival of November Revolution in, 36

Nazi electoral success in, 171

Original and Facsimile exhibition in (1929), 150, 151

Schwitters’s design commissions for, 212n63

letterheads and forms for municipal offices and institutions, 117, 117–18, 119

notice for transit authority, 114–16, 115

see also Merzbau, Hanover; Provinzialmuseum Hannover

Haus am Bakken (“house on the slope”), Lysaker, Norway, 124, 160–61

Hausmann, Raoul, 19, 39, 42, 44–45, 46, 72, 84

Heartfield, John, 33, 37, 208n63

Heidegger, Martin, 108

I. C. Herhold, 109

Herzfelde, Wieland, 33, 37

Hilberseimer, Ludwig, 156, 216n73

Hill, David Octavius, 150

Newhaven Fishwife (with Robert Adamson), 149, 149

Hindenburg, Paul von, 69, 135

Hirschhorn, Thomas, 20, 66, 143, 193, 197–201

Gramsci Monument, 198

Kurt Schwitters Platform, 199–201, 200

Robert Walser Kiosk, 199

Hitler, Adolf, 12, 34, 69, 135, 136, 158, 169, 177

Hjertøya island, Norway: Schwitters’s modified hut on, 124, 213n9, 217n33

Höch, Hannah, 14, 14, 25, 39, 124, 142, 218n5

Hofmannsthal, Hugo von: “Lord Chandos Letter,” 211nn22, 36

Horkheimer, Max, 13, 15

Huelsenbeck, Richard, 18–19, 21, 37, 39, 42, 44, 46, 48, 199, 204n6, 205nn8, 9, 208n73, 218n5

Hutchinson Camp, England, 193, 217n33

I

Independent Socialists (USPD), 30, 32

indexicality, in relation to photography and Merzbau, 11, 126, 158, 213n13

influenza pandemic of 1918, 196–97

installation art:

Dorner and Moholy-Nagy’s Room of the Present project, 151–56, 154, 155, 216nn70, 71

Lissitzky’s Abstract Cabinet, 151, 152, 153, 215n61, 216n68

see also Merzbau, Hanover

J

Johns, Jasper:

Device, 61, 63

Device Circle, 61

Good Time Charley, 61

K

Kállai, Ernst, 148–49

Kandinsky, Wassily, 46

Kapp Putsch (1920), 34

Katz, Jonathan, 6–7, 8

KdeE. See sculptural assemblages and columnar constructions

Kelsen, Hans, 72

On the Essence and Value of Democracy, 68

Kessler, Harry Graf, 25, 33, 207n58

Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, 150

Khlebnikov, Velimir, 83, 84

Klages, Ludwig, 108

Handschrift und Charakter (Handwriting and Character), 94–96

Introduction to the Psychology of Handwriting, 96

Klee, Paul, 35, 46, 84

Klinker, Emmy, 35

Kokoschka, Oskar, 208n63

Kracauer, Siegfried, 96, 149

Krauss, Rosalind, 6, 8, 9, 91–92, 167, 174

Kreusch, Max von, 96

Kruchenykh, Aleksei, 83, 84

Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage exhibition, Houston (2010), 195–96

L

landscape paintings (Schwitters), 165, 172, 184

Djupvand 3, 174–77, 175, 184

Langenstraß-Uhlig, Magda, 36

Laqueur, Walter, 171, 172

Last, Rex, 24

Lateran Palace, Rome, Sancta Sanctorum in, 144, 144

League of Nations, 189, 190, 193

Lefort, Claude, 20

Leighten, Patricia, 6, 8

Leonhardt, H. H., 105, 105, 212nn42, 44

letterhead designs (Schwitters), 117, 117–18, 119

Levinas, Emmanuel, 196, 197

Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph, 158

Liebknecht, Karl, 29, 31, 32, 33, 67, 68, 206n30, 207n42

Lissitzky, El, 79, 111, 211nn33, 34, 217n32

Abstract Cabinet (Kabinett der Abstrakten), 151, 152, 153, 215n61, 216n68

Pelikan advertisements, 98, 98, 100, 105, 106–7, 211n33

Lissitzky-Küppers, Sophie, 107

logos:

in collages, 80, 84, 105

for Dammerstock housing estate, Karlsruhe, 114, 114

for Pelikan, 94, 95, 99–100, 103, 103–4, 105, 111, 112, 113, 114

Luke, Megan, 124, 130, 139, 204n14, 213n7, 217n30

Luxemburg, Rosa, 33, 206n20

M

Makela, Maria, 204n13

Malevich, Kazimir, 84, 187, 188, 192, 217n32

Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso, 84

parole in libertà, 83, 83

“Me and My Goals” (“Ich und meine Ziele”) (Schwitters), 135–36

“Meaning of Merz Thinking in the World, The” (Schwitters), 77, 183, 184, 210n5

Mehring, Walter, 1, 2, 26, 89, 182

Mendelssohn, Anja and Georg, 96, 97, 104

Menil Collection, Houston, 195–96

Merz:

boundaries and boundedness in Schwitters’s thinking about, 8–9, 12, 172–73, 183–85, 189–90, 193

debut of, in July 1919 show at Der Sturm, 1–2, 3–5, 18, 21, 26, 36, 46–47, 48–52, 72

distinction of early and late works, 181–82, 184–85

doing art politically in, 20, 66, 71, 193, 199, 201

exilic structure of, 12, 169, 183, 185–87, 193

Germany’s revolutionary condition and, 19, 36–37, 42–47, 66–73. See also November Revolution; revolutionary/rotational language and motifs

invention of, 2, 10–11, 19, 36–37, 70–71, 197

language and text in, 11, 51, 55–58, 59, 65, 66, 75. See also textual elements

New Merz Picture in context of, 163–66, 188

object-based objectlessness in, 1, 2, 89, 182

opposition of abstract and concrete in, 69–71

origin of name, 1, 70, 92, 210n15

prosaic components of, 1–2, 13–14, 70–71

references to specific historical events and contexts in, 19, 26, 53, 55, 91

representation without figuration in, 89, 182

scale of human visage and, 197

Schwitters’s negotiation between Dada and Der Sturm aesthetics and, 11, 37–59, 69–70

Schwitters’s writings on: “The Aims of my Merz Art,” 184

“The Meaning of Merz Thinking in the World,” 77, 183, 184

word Pelikan as component in, 105–7, 106, 107, 108–11, 118, 118–19

Merz, titles of works:

Construction for Noble Ladies (Merzbild 10 A/L Merzbild L4 [Konstruktion für edle Frauen]), 3–5, 4, 48, 59–66, 60, 72, 204n14, 209n90

compositional concerns in, 61–64, 70, 72

contrast of The Worker Picture to, 65

details, xii, 5, 51, 54, 62, 65

Fahrradkarte (train ticket) in, 5, 14–15, 64–65

funnel at center of, 3, 61–64, 72

identifiable components of, 3–5, 14–15, 61

Jasper Johns looking to, 61

painted portrait composition integrated into lower right corner of, 61

picture-within-a-picture construction of, 61–64

revolutionary program of, 65–66, 69–73

Schwitters’s text on word noble and, 65

universe of circular forms in, 61

Global Circles. See Revolving

Merzbild Thirty-One (Merzbild Einunddreißig), 39

The Merz Picture (L Merzbild L3 [Das Merzbild]), 53, 54, 168

Merzpicture 1 B Picture with Red Cross (Merzbild 1 B Bild mit rotem Kreuz), 39

Merz Picture 9b, The Great I Picture/Merz Picture K7 (?) (Merzbild 9b das große Ichbild/Merzbild K7 [?]), 16, 39–42, 41, 174

Merzz. 96 Standing Yellow (Merzz. 96 stehen Gelb), 80–82, 81

M Merzdrawing 1 (Dedicated to Anna Blume) (M Merzzeichnung 1 [Anna Blume gewidmet]), 208n72

Mz. 26, 33

Görlitz, 85, 90, 91, 174

Mz. 170 (Voids in Space) (Mz. 170 [Leere im Raum]), 53, 55, 91

Mz. 316 ische Yellow (Mz. 316 ische Gelb), 82, 82, 91, 194

Mz. 410 (Something or Other) (Mz. 410 [Irgendsowas]), 76, 76–79, 82–83, 91

Mz. 443 (?)/Untitled (Kao) (Mz. 443 [?]/Ohne Titel [Kao]), 85, 174

Mz. 460 (Two Underdrawers) (Mz. 460 [Twee onderbroeken]), 85

New Merz Picture (Neues Merzbild), 163–68, 164, 165, 192

as manifesto work, 165, 168–69, 172, 182, 188, 192

Picture with Light Center (Bild mit heller Mitte), 48

Picture with Turning Wheel (Bild mit Drehrad), 165

Revolving (previously known as Global Circles) (Das Kreisen [previously known as Weltenkreise]), 55–59, 57, 59

The Star Picture (Merzbild 25A [Das Sternenbild]), 53–55, 56

This Is Friedel Vordemberge’s Wire Spring (Dieser Ist Friedel Vordemberges Drahtfrühling), 85–91, 87, 89, 115, 115–16

29/9, 118, 118–19

Untitled (Black Merz Drawing) (Ohne Titel [Schwarze Merzzeichnung]), 107

Untitled (itter) (Ohne Titel [itter]), 82, 82

Untitled (Merz Picture with Algae) (Ohne Titel [Merzbild mit Algen]), 162, 186, 187, 188

Untitled (Merz Picture with Teeth) (Ohne Titel [Merzbild mit Zähnen]), 178, 178, 184

Untitled (Mz. ELIKAN ELIKAN ELIKAN) (Ohne Titel [Mz. ELIKAN ELIKAN ELIKAN]), 110, 111, 111–12

Untitled (Pelikan Wagner) (Ohne Titel [Pelikan Wagner]), 106, 106–7

Untitled (Speckgumm) (Ohne Titel [Speckgumm]), 106, 107

Untitled (WAGNER AND VIENNA) (Ohne Titel [WAGNER UND WIEN]), 106, 106–7

The Worker Picture (Das Arbeiterbild), 21, 26–28, 27, 48–52, 49, 51, 52, 59, 65, 208nn74–76

alliteratively linked sounds and rhythms of words in, 51

bright red Arbeiter fragment at upper right of, 26, 48–50, 50, 51, 51–52, 71, 91

contrast of Construction for Noble Ladies and, 65

negotiation between aesthetics of Dada and Der Sturm in, 48–52, 55

original state, with wheel integrated at top, 55, 58

Revolving (previously known as Global Circles) compared to, 55, 59

Zig-zag Red (Zickzackrot), 53

see also assemblages of 1930–40s; collage; sculptural assemblages and columnar constructions

Merz Barn, Elterwater, England, 124, 160, 160, 161

Merzbau, Hanover, 9, 11–12, 116, 121–61, 166, 177

abandoned with Schwitters’s move into exile, 121, 124, 125, 160, 213n8

as accumulation of memory banks, 125–26, 141, 145

avant-garde dissolution and, 126, 144–45

Bissegger’s reconstruction of, 126–27, 127, 195, 213n14

collected mementos in, 123–24, 142–45

conceptualization and construction process of, 123–25, 126, 127, 136–37, 153, 156

death mask of artist’s son Gerd in, 133–34, 142, 214n22

declared finished by Schwitters, 124, 125

destroyed in British bombing raid (1943), 121, 126

deterioration of Germany’s political and social situation and, 125, 142, 159–60

documentary images of, 137–41

Barbarossa Grotto, 137, 138, 214n29

Ernst Schwitters’s ca. 1935 paired detail views, 139–41, 140, 141, 142, 146, 214nn29, 35

Grotto in Memory of Molde, 139

Grotto with Doll’s Head, 137, 139

Madonna, 137, 139

Redemann’s 1933 photographs, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124–25, 126, 212n1

Dorner’s gallery projects and, 152–56, 216nn70, 71, 79

first use of term, 124

grottos, or cavities, in, 123, 130, 135, 136, 137–39, 138, 139, 144, 147, 156, 158, 161, 212–13n2, 214nn29, 40

Hirschhorn’s Kurt Schwitters Platform constructed at site of, 199–201, 200

illumination of surfaces in late Weimar years and, 156–57

as inhabitable image space, 11–12, 126, 141–42, 147, 156–57

integration of mirrors into, 137, 214nn25, 28

lighting and luminous effects in, 137–41, 143, 216nn68, 71

meaning of term, 9, 124

mimetic inhabitation and, 12, 157–59, 160, 161, 170

New Merz Picture in relation to, 166, 168

other Merzbau constructions built abroad and, 124, 160, 160–61, 213n9

photographic character of, 11–12, 123–24, 126–27, 134, 136–50, 153–61, 214nn25, 27, 28. See also photography

plan of, 124, 124

reliquary elements in, 142–45, 147, 161

rooms in artist’s apartment at Waldhausenstraße 5, Hanover, occupied by, 121–23, 124, 124, 166

Schwitters’s earlier sculptural assemblages and columnar constructions in relation to, 123, 125, 126–36, 141, 142–43, 153

Schwitters’s experience of exile and, 170–71

windows in primary room of, 214n25

Merz journal, 217n32

Merz 11, Typoreklame/Pelikan-Nummer, 74, 93–94, 93–95, 97–106, 101, 102, 109, 114, 116, 117, 118

central spread of, 94, 95, 98, 99, 103, 103–4, 111, 117

critical reception of, 105, 105, 113, 212nn42, 44

logo, or signet design, in, 94, 95, 99–100, 103, 103–4, 111, 113, 114

Merz 12, 113

Merz 13, 113

Merz 14/15, 112, 113

Merz 16/17, 113

Merz 21, The First Violet Notebook (Das erste Veilchenheft), 133, 135–36

Merz Werbe letterhead, 117, 117

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 6

Michaels, Walter Benn, 83

militarism, German, 31–33

mimetic inhabitation (Benjamin), 12, 92, 157–59, 160, 161, 170

Moholy-Nagy, László, 38, 79, 153, 157

Light Prop for an Electrical Stage, 152–53, 156

Room of the Present project, 152–56, 154, 155, 216n71

Molzahn, Johannes, 35, 45, 48

Drawing (Zeichnung), 46, 46, 47

“Manifesto of Absolute Expressionism,” 45

Mommsen, Hans, 171

Mondrian, Piet, 151, 214n28

“MPD” party (Merz-Partei Deutschland [Merz Party Germany] and Mehrheits-Partei Dada [Majority-Party Dada]), 25–26

N

Nagel, Alexander, 144, 145

Nansen Pass, 190

National Assembly, 30, 32, 33, 44, 67, 68, 69, 206n30, 207n37

National Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils (1918), 31–32, 206n30

nationalism, 71, 72

Nazi party (NSDAP), 12, 117, 168, 169, 170–72, 181, 192, 197, 209n95, 211n23

Neue Berliner Zeitung, 26

I. B. Neumann gallery, Berlin, 39

New Merz Picture. See Merz, titles of works

New York Times, 30, 30

Niemann, Elisabeth, 35

Nill, Annegreth, 204n13, 209n1

Norway:

German invasion of, 181

Schwitters’s environmental constructions in, 124, 160–61, 213n9, 217n32

Schwitters’s flight to, 12, 124, 177, 190–91

Schwitters’s long summers spent in, 177

Schwitters’s paintings related to landscape of, 174–77, 178–81, 179, 180, 184

Djupvand 3, 174–77, 175, 184

Noske, Gustav, 33

Grosz’s cover illustration for the journal Die Pleite (Bankruptcy) and, 33, 34, 37

November Revolution, 10–11, 17–18, 28–37, 30, 33, 206n30

contested nature of, 66–67

in Hanover, 36

Merz as response to, 19, 36–37, 42, 66–73

origins of, 28–29

political connotations of color red and, 24–25

power arrangements and council system in, 29–31, 30, 32–33, 67, 68

role of reactionary forces in, 31–33, 66–67

Schwitters’s experience of, 36–37

Schwitters’s negotiation between Dada and Der Sturm aesthetics in context of, 11, 37–59, 69–70

strikes and violent uprisings in, 33, 33, 34, 34, 35–36, 48–50, 50, 51, 59, 66, 207n37

O

Original and Facsimile (Original und Faksimile) exhibition, Hanover (1929), 150, 151, 215n59

“Origins and Beginnings of the Great Glorious Revolution in Revon” (Schwitters), 206n23

P

paintings:

biomorphic images, 177, 178–81

Picture with Soft Rod (Bild mit weicher Stange), 178–81, 180, 217n23

Untitled (ord) (Ohne Titel [ord]), 177–81, 179

interior views, 177

landscapes, 165, 172, 174–77, 175, 184

Djupvand 3, 174–77, 175, 184

portraits, 177, 184

Yellow Six (Gelbe Sechs), 173, 173–74, 217n18

passport system, 189, 189, 190, 191, 192–93, 218n38

Peirce, Charles Sanders, 102–3, 211n37, 213n13

Pelikan, word as component in Schwitters’s collages, 105–7, 106, 107, 118, 118–19, 174

Pelikan advertisements, 79

by Lissitzky, 98, 98, 100, 105, 106–7, 211n33

logo, or signet design, 94, 95, 99–100, 103, 103–4, 105, 111, 112, 113, 114

Merz 11, Typoreklame/Pelikan-Nummer, 74, 93–94, 93–95, 97–106, 101, 102, 109, 114, 116, 117, 118

central spread of, 94, 95, 98, 99, 103, 103–4, 111, 117

critical reception of, 105, 105, 113, 212nn42, 44

Suchodolski poster, 99, 99–100, 111, 111–12

Pfemert, Franz, 68, 206n30

photograms:

Schwitters’s experiments with, 145, 147, 149, 150, 215n47

Photogram with White Heart/Photogram I (Fotogramm mit weißem Herz/Photogramm I), 145, 146, 147, 215n47

Shroud of Turin and, 145–48, 147, 148

photography, 126–61

Benjamin’s mimetic theory and, 159

Bissegger’s reconstruction of Merzbau and, 126–27

Hill and Adamson’s Newhaven Fishwife, 149, 149

inhabitable image space and, 11–12, 126, 141–42, 147, 156–57, 213n13

late Weimar discourse on, 148–51

mediation between flatness and depth in, 141–42, 147, 214n28, 216n75

Merzbau, Hanover, in relation to, 11–12, 123–24, 126–27, 134, 136–50, 153–61, 214nn25, 27, 28. See also Merzbau, Hanover—documentary images of

as recorder of traces, or relic of that which is pictured, 142–47, 150

Schwitters’s dabbling in, 145. See also photograms

Schwitters’s first published thoughts on, 128, 128–29

Schwitters’s sculptural experiments and columnar constructions prior to Merzbau and, 123, 126–36, 141, 154–55

transformed from deeply penetrant art form to ubiquitous recorder of superficial appearance, 149–50

as vehicle for “time- and space-travel,” 144–45

photo-inflation (Kállai), 148–49

photomontage, 133

Pia, Giuseppe: Shroud of Turin photographs, 146, 147, 147

Picabia, Francis, 52

Alarm Clock I (Réveil matin I), 52–53, 53, 209nn79, 81

Picasso, Pablo, 6, 8, 14, 91, 166–67, 208n74, 216n4, 217n18

The Architect’s Table (La table de l’architecte), 84, 85

Bottle of Suze (La bouteille de Suze), 6, 7

Pipe and Sheet Music (Pipe et partition), 166, 167

Plato, 203n5

Die Pleite (Bankruptcy), Grosz’s cover illustration for, 33, 34, 37

porridge sculptures (Schwitters), 193, 217n33

Porstmann, Walter: Sprache und Schrift (Speech and Script), 88–89, 90, 107–8

portraits, 177, 184

posters:

agitational, in November Revolution, 50, 50, 52. See also Arbeiter poster

for exhibition on Dammerstock housing estate, Karlsruhe, 114, 114

Suchodolski’s Pelikan poster, 99, 99–100, 111, 111–12

Precarious, The, Houston (2015 exhibition), 196

Provinzialmuseum Hannover:

atmosphere rooms (Stimmungsräume) in, 153

Lissitzky’s Abstract Cabinet in, 151, 152, 153, 215n61, 216n68

Room of the Present project for, 151–56, 154, 155, 216nn70, 71

R

“Die Raddadistenmaschine” (Schwitters), 208n64

Rauschenberg, Robert, 8

Combines, 6–7, 8, 14

red (color), political connotations of, 24–25

Redemann, Wilhelm, 152

Merzbau photographs, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124–25, 126, 142–43, 212n1

reliquary elements:

history of Christian reliquary spaces and, 144, 144

in Merzbau, Hanover, 142–45, 147

photography’s capacity as medium for, 133, 141, 214n28

in Schwitters’s now-lost column of ca. 1923–25, 131–34, 132

Remarque, Erich Maria, 171–72

revolution. See November Revolution

revolutionary/rotational language and motifs, 43–48

Dada’s revolutionary appeals and, 43–45, 46

origin of word revolution and, 44

Picabia’s stamp drawings and, 52–53, 53

Scheerbart’s perpetual motion machine and, 208n67, 209n81

in Schwitters’s July 1919

Merz exhibition, 48–52, 208n72

Schwitters’s negotiation between Dada and Der Sturm aesthetics and, 43–59

Schwitters’s text “Die Raddadistenmaschine” and, 208n64

spiritual revolution and, 46, 208n71

ring neuer werbegestalter (circle of new ad designers), 114, 141, 211n34

Room of the Present (Raum der Gegenwart) project, 151–56, 154, 155, 216nn70, 71

Rosenberg, Alfred, 169, 171

S

Said, Edward, 170, 187, 190

Saudek, Robert, 96

Saussure, Ferdinand de: Course in General Linguistics, 92, 210n17

Schapiro, Meyer, 78, 79, 83

Scheerbart, Paul, 205n16, 208n67, 209n81

Scheidemann, Philipp, 29

Schmalenbach, Werner, 165–66, 168, 178, 203n13

Schmitt, Carl, 209n95

Scholz, Hermann, 107

Schuitema, Paul, 141

Schwitters, Eduard (father), 169

Schwitters, Ernst (son), 123, 124, 145

on Haus am Bakken, Lysaker, Norway, 160–61

Merzbau photographs, 138–41, 139–41, 142, 146, 214nn29, 35

Schwitters, Gerd (son), 133, 134, 142, 214n22

Schwitters, Helma (wife), 124, 128, 129, 145, 212n1

Schwitters, Kurt:

biomorphic images of, 169, 176, 177, 178–81, 179, 180

declared “parasite of German culture,” 169, 170–71

in exile, at home and abroad, 12, 142, 168–72, 177, 190–91, 192–93

figurative impulse in post-1930

work of, 169, 172–82, 184–85, 187, 192

flight from Germany, 121, 124, 125, 160, 168, 191, 192, 213n8

interned at England’s Hutchinson Camp, 193, 217n33

landscape paintings of, 165, 172, 174–77, 175, 184

November Revolution experienced by, 36–37

poisoned abstraction of, 182, 185–87. See also Eigengift

portraits, 177, 184

see also Abstraction series; assemblages of 1930s–40s; collage; commercial design; Merz; Merz, titles of works; Merzbau, Hanover; photograms; sculptural assemblages; sculptures; textual elements

Schwitters, Kurt, writings of:

“The Aims of my Merz Art,” 184

Anna Blume Gedichte (Anna Blume Poems), 25

“To Anna Blume,” 21–26, 23, 28, 73

Anna Blume’s redness and, 24–25, 206n20

Benjamin’s notion of mimetic inhabitation and, 92

colors of nonsense in, 24–25

palindromic nature of Anna Blume’s first name and, 22, 92, 210n16

“The Big E,” 135, 142, 214n23

“The Feeling of Nationalism,” 72

Hahnepeter (Peter Rooster), 113

“Me and My Goals” (“Ich und meine Ziele”), 135–36

“The Meaning of Merz Thinking in the World,” 77, 183, 184, 210n5

“Origins and Beginnings of the Great Glorious Revolution in Revon,” 206n23

“Die Raddadistenmaschine,” 208n64

Ursonate, 113

Werbe Gestaltung—Die Neue Gestaltung in der Typographie (Ad Design—The New Typographic Design), 114

“What Art Is: A Rule for Great Critics,” 65

sculptural assemblages and columnar constructions (prior to Merzbau, Hanover), 125, 126, 128–37

The Big E (Das große E), previously known as the Cathedral of Erotic Misery (Kathedrale des erotischen Elends), or KdeE, 135–36, 142–43, 143, 145, 156, 214n40

Castle and Cathedral with Courtyard Well (Schloß und Kathedrale mit Hofbrunnen), 128, 128–29

The Holy Affliction (Die Heilige Bekümmernis), 129, 129–30, 131, 139, 213n17

House Merz (Haus Merz), 130–31, 131

photography central to, 123, 126–36, 141, 154–55

Schwitters’s now-lost column of ca. 1923–25 (Untitled [Merzcolumn]), 131–34, 132, 142, 214n22

The First Day (Der Erste Tag) as component of, 131, 133, 133

sculptures, late, 187–88

“porridge sculptures,” 193, 217n33

Untitled (Memory of Hjertøya) (Ohne Titel [Erinnerung an Hjertøya]), 188, 188

Untitled (The All-Embracing Sculpture) (Ohne Titel [Die allumfassende Plastik]), 188, 188

Seidel, Michael, 170

semiotics, Saussure’s and Peirce’s formulations and, 92, 102–3, 210n17, 211n37, 213n13

Seurat, Georges, 166, 167, 217n16

Shroud of Turin, 145–48, 147, 148, 215n48

signature, 94

Social Democratic Party (SPD), 29, 30, 31, 32–33, 36, 66–67

Soviet Union (formerly Soviet Russia), 29, 38

Spartacists, 32, 33, 207n42

“Spartacist Uprising” (1919), 33

Spengemann, Christof, 124, 131

Steegemann, Paul, 26

Steinitz, Kate, 112, 113, 143, 190, 209nn85, 86

Stimmungsräume (atmosphere rooms), 153

Strodthoff, Hermann, 114

Der Sturm, 19, 38, 199

Molzahn’s Drawing (Zeichnung) in, 46, 46

Molzahn’s “Manifesto of Absolute Expressionism” in, 45

“To Anna Blume” published in, 21, 23

Walden’s essays in April 1919 issue of, 37–38

Der Sturm, Berlin, 1, 11, 18, 19, 21

absolute separation of art and political action as tenet of, 37–38, 42–43, 65

hundreds killed in street battles near, 59

rotational rhythms of cosmos and aesthetics of, 43–55

Schwitters’s negotiation between practices of Dada and, 11, 37–59, 69–70

Schwitters’s shows at: 1918 debut, 35, 39, 46

January 1919 exhibition with Molzahn and Klee, 35–36, 42, 46, 48

July 1919 (Merz debut), 1–2, 3–5, 18, 21, 26, 36, 46–47, 48–52, 72

Suchodolski, Siegmund von, Pelikan poster by, 99, 99–100, 111, 111–12

symbol, Bachofen’s notion of, 96–97, 103

T

Taeuber-Arp, Sophie, 14, 214nn28, 37

Duo-Collage series, 192, 192

Tatlin, Vladimir, 14

Taut, Bruno, 128

textual elements in Schwitters’s work, 75–119

abstract visual appearance vs. communication function of, 77–78, 80–83, 84, 116

alliteratively linked sounds and rhythms of words, 51

handwriting and, 79, 80, 94–96, 97, 103, 109–11, 119

islands of legibility in, 82–83

isolated characters in, 91

“language of things” and, 11, 92–93, 100, 113, 116, 211nn22, 36

naming of Merz related to, 92

numerals and, 131, 174

Peirce’s semiotic categories and, 102–3, 211n37

politically charged words, 53, 91, 92. See also Arbeiter poster

Porstmann’s Sprache und Schrift (Speech and Script) and, 88–89, 90, 107–8

precedents for, 83–84

precise positioning of, 80

proper names in, 91–92

repetition of trio Tee, Schokolade, and Kakao (tea, chocolate, and cocoa), 84–89, 112

Systemschrift (systematic script) for German alphabet, 113, 113, 114

typewriter’s proliferation and, 107–9, 119, 212nn47, 48

typewritten, in Buchheisters Wollkenkratzer Hannover (Buchheister’s Skyy-scraper Hanover), 109, 109, 212n55

utilized as form of color, 77, 80, 83, 92

variety of materials and typestyles of, 80, 84

word Pelikan and, 105–7, 106, 107, 118, 118–19

This Is Friedel Vordemberge’s Wire Spring. See Merz, titles of works

Thomson, Philip, 24

Tschichold, Jan (Iwan), 88, 94, 103, 114

typewriters, 107–9, 119, 212nn47, 48

Typographische Mitteilungen, 94, 95, 103

Typoreklame issue. See Merz journal

Tzara, Tristan, 52, 89, 182, 204n6

U

Ulbrich, Gerard, 107

Untitled (collaged portrait postcard of Kurt Schwitters for Hannah Höch, September 10, 1921), 25, 25

Ursonate (Schwitters), 113

V

Versailles Treaty, 34, 36, 53, 91

W

Walden, Herwarth, 11, 19, 50, 51, 199

absolute separation of art and political

action as tenet of, 37–38, 42, 65

artists’ scorn for apolitical stance of, 38

Berlin apartment of, 26, 28

Dadaists’ disdain for, 38, 42, 207n50

rotational rhythms of cosmos and aesthetics of, 45–46, 48

writings, 48

“Abstraction in Poetry,” 46

“Art and Life,” 37

“Artists, the People, and Art,” 38

Die neue Malerei (The New Painting) by, 45–46

Walden, Nell, 28

Webster, Gwendolen, 123, 124, 126, 136, 153, 156, 213n17

Weimar Republic:

birth of, 33

collapse of, 34, 69

constitution of, 33–34, 36, 68–69

slowing of Schwitters’s pictorial production in final years of, 172

see also November Revolution

Werbe Gestaltung—Die Neue Gestaltung in der Typographie (Ad Design—The New Typographic Design) (Schwitters), 114

Westheim, Paul, 149

“What Art Is: A Rule for Great Critics” (Schwitters), 65

“What Is Dada and What Does It Want in Germany?” manifesto, 38, 42, 44–45

Wilhelm II, Kaiser, abdication of, 29, 30, 30, 206n29

Worker Picture, The. See Merz, titles of works

Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, 18, 29–30, 30, 31–32, 36, 67, 68, 206n30

Central Committee of, 32, 36

World War I, 18, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 197

border instability and refugee flows in, 188–89

border regime and identity papers instituted in wake of, 189–90, 192–93

Z

Zaum poetry, 83, 84

Zimmermann, Michael, 204n13

Zurich Dada, 52, 191–92

Zwart, Piet, 114, 211n34

Schwitters’s letter to, 117, 117–18, 211n34

Der Zweemann, 18, 130

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