Kurt Schwitters Merzbau: The Cathedral of Erotic Misery

244 Pages·2000·1.644 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Burns Gamard

KURT SCHWITTERS’ MERZBAU: THE CATHEDRAL OF EROTIC MISERY

Elizabeth Burns Gamard
Kurt Schwitters’
Merzbau:
The Cathedral of Erotic Misery
BUILDING
5
Princeton Architectural Press, New York
STUDIES
Published by Library of Congress
Princeton Architectural Press Cataloging-in-Publication Data
37East 7th Street
New York, NY 10003 Gamard, Elizabeth Burns, 1958–
212.995.9620 Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau : the Cathedral
www.papress.com of erotic misery /
Elizabeth Burns Gamard
© 2000Princeton Architectural Press p. cm.
ISBN 1-56898-136-8 ISBN: 1-56898-136-8(alk. paper)
All rights reserved. 1. Schwitters, Kurt, 1887-1948. Merzbau.
03020100 5 4321 2. Schwitters, Kurt, 1887–1948—Criticism
First Edition and interpretation. 3. Assemblage (Art)
Germany. 4. Expressionism (Art)—
Printed and bound in the United States. Germany. I. Title.
N6888.S42A71998
No part of this book may be reproduced in 709'.2—dc21 97-45031
any manner without written permission CIP
from the publisher except in the context of
reviews.
Every effort has been made to contact the
owners of copyright for the images herein.
Any omissions will be corrected in subse-
quent printings.
Editor: Eugenia Bell
Layout: Mia Ihara
Cover Design: Sara Stemen
Cover Image: Hannover Merzbau,
photograph c. 1930 (courtesy of the
Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Special thanks: Ann Alter, Jan Cigliano,
Jane Garvie, Caroline Green, Beth Harrison,
Clare Jacobson, Leslie Ann Kent,
Mark Lamster, Annie Nitschke,
Lottchen Shivers, and Jennifer Thompson
of Princeton Architectural Press
—Kevin C. Lippert, publisher
contents
VII Acknowledgements
XI Plates
1
INTRODUCTION
Kurt Schwitters’ Sehnsucht
19
CHAPTERI
The Artistic Revolution of Kurt “Merz” Schwitters:
Hannover—Dresden—Hannover—Revon(nah)
45
CHAPTERII
Preliminary Projects:
Literature and Sculpture 1919-1922
87
CHAPTERIII
Die Kathedrale des Erotischen Elends:
Kurt Schwitters’Merzbau
115
CHAPTERIV
Stone Upon Stone is Building
141
CHAPTERV
Merzing Life, Merzing Art, Merzing Life
167
CHAPTERVI
Merzing Love:
Erotic Misery and the Redemption of Kurt Schwitters
193 Index
To Paul and Sarah, My Beloveds
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dedicated to the study of Kurt Schwitters’ pre-eminent work of art, the
Hannover Merzbau, the sum of this book has taken six years to write—
though it has been several more years in the making. I am indebted to a num-
ber of institutions and individuals who have supported this project.
The assistance provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies
in the Fine Arts during the early stages of the project enabled travel to several
archives and museums. Of these, I would like to thank the Kurt Schwitters
Archiv, Stadtbibiothek Hannover, particularly Frau Maria Haldenwanger who
was exceedingly helpful and generous with her time. I would also like to thank
Dr. Isabel Schulz, Director of the Kurt Schwitters Archiv at the Sprengel
Museum-Hannover (SMH), for her help with the latter stages of the project.
In Paris, the correspondence archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the
Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet-Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève were
indispensable to an understanding of the myriad relationships, both personal
and professional, that informed Schwitters’ creative activities; the Bauhaus
Archiv, especially Frau Sigrid Heimrich and Dr. Peter Hahn, the Museum für
Verkehr und Technik-Berlin (now the Deutsche Technikmuseum Berlin), and
the Akademie der Künste-Berlin for their accomodation of a West Berliner
Museum Exchange Grant. I would also like to thank the staff of the Museum
of Modern Art Photographic Archive, especially Mikki Carpenter, for helping
locate several works by Schwitters, a task that was also aided by Marlborough
Fine Art Ltd. London; the Beinecke Rare Book Library and Archive at Yale
University and the Art and Architecture Library, also at Yale; Jet Prendeville of
the Brown Fine Arts Library at Rice University; Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne;
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Moderna Museet,
Stockholm; and Galerie Kornfeld, Bern. Of special mention are my students at
the Central European University in Prague, many of whom kept me up all
night, every night with their questions and insights into an expanded avant-
garde project, their motivated (and motivating) transgression of limits, and
MERZBAU
their commitment to immersive research into a new world born. I am still
learning from them.
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Hans Frei and Ursula Suter Frei (Zürich)for
helping me to frame the issues while introducing me to Dauphinéer’s
Switzerland and going along with my request to visit every city in search of
Kurt Schwitters and Joseph Beuys; to Donald Gatzke, Dean of the School of
Architecture at Tulane University for the gift of time; to Professor John
Casbarian for his support and advice on the project and life in general; to Dr.
Richard Wolin for the acuity of his intellectual critique and his shared enthu-
siasms; to the late Dr. Konstantin Kolenda for introducing me to Ludwig
Wittgenstein and going over my writing word by word, phrase by phrase; to
Dr. William Camfield for his generosity of spirit and the bounty of his work;
to Kevin Lippert for his enthused interest at the beginning of the project; to
Spencer Parsons for his peripatetic view of Paris and his prodding of disci-
pline; to Dr. Gwendolen Webster for her encouragement and the timely
autobiographical study of Schwitters; to Dr. Annegreth Nill for her enor-
mous insight into Schwitters’ work, in particular her search for the
hermeneutic content of Schwitters’ Merz-paintings and literary works; to
Christian Schmidt for backing up my translations, helping me locate sources
on Schwitters in Berlin, and for reminding me in general of my time living
and working in Berlin, before and after die Wende; and Dr. Richard Ingersoll
for his honest and deliberative critique of my earlier writings on Schwitters,
and for asking the questions that uncovered veins of research that have
become central to my work, and other important things.
I wish to also thank my colleagues at Tulane, in particular Professor
Ashley Schafer for her challenge that we make it a race to the finish line; Dr.
Carol McMichael Reese for her grace under fire, irreverent wit and an appre-
ciation of what it takes; Dr. Elizabeth English, whose work on Russian mys-
ticism enlightened my own work on German mysticism; Dr. Ila Berman for
her deep reservoir of empathy and still more ideas; Francine Judd for her
beautiful photography and way of seeing; and Terry Hogan for help with the
details. I would also like to thank my fellow travelers, Professors Sharon
Matthews, Andrea Kahn, and Carol Burns especially, for their demands for
rigor and reminding me to keep it all in perspective; and Professor Vincent
Castagnacci for opening my eyes, heart and mind to the world by releasing
me from the burdens of habit.
For their abiding faith, and more than a few meals and cups of coffee, I
wish to express my gratitude to those who have been through the thick and
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
thin of this project, and who have supported me to the highest degree imagin-
able, personally and otherwise: Kate Gottsegen, Cheryl R. Becnel, John Terry,
Betty Yates Burns, and J. Keenan Burns, Sr. I must here end my scroll by rec-
ognizing the significant contributions of Eugenia Bell, my editor at Princeton
Architectural Press, whose endless patience, directness, encouragement, and
friendship have enabled me to sustain the project over the past two years.
Finally, I am most indebted to Lindy Roy, who made much of this pos-
sible by recognizing, hearing, and applauding my voice as it struggled in the
thinner air of another place and time. To Lindy I extend my heartfelt and
deepest gratitude.
ix