Kurt SCHWITTERS

b. 1887, d. 1948

SCHWITTERS work attracted me initially because of the imaginative way he utilised everyday objects to create collage pieces of art.  I enjoy the way he creates beautiful pieces of art from stuff that would usually be discarded such as bus and train tickets, sweet papers, clippings from magazines and newspapers – even scraps of reinforced envelopes such as the ones with loosely woven thread running through them and stuck onto paper for strength.  I felt he was rebelling against the consumer, capitalist society through his art.  His art resonated with me as I too continually try to re-use everyday items and create new things.

He named his work utilising this material, Merz Pictures – Merz being a word he made up derived from the second part of the word kommerz, which is German for commerce. He was attracted by the Dada movement of the arts which began in the early 20th Century in Europe as well as New York.  Dadaists worked with collage and photomontage which used found materials and objects and they rejected the violence of war and the moral and political order at the time. Their reason for being was to ‘kick against’ convention – including conventional art such as paintings and sculpture.  They used everyday, mass-produced items in their art creations which was intended as “anti-art”, and required no formal training.  It was ironic that connoisseurs of fine art at the time enthusiastically embraced it, somewhat defeating the object!

SCHWITTERS Dada work inspired him to use materials, which would otherwise be thought of as rubbish, in his creations, but Dada was not the only way he worked; he worked with many different media including, surrealism, constructivism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture and graphic design, but he was most famous for his Merz Pictures.

Kurt Schwitters, Collage with playing card, 1940, Oil and collage on board, 27.2 x 21.6 cms (10 3/4 x 8 1/2 ins), KS13775 (retrieved 25.2.19 https://abstractcritical.com/note/kurt-schwitters-collages-and-assemblages-1920-1947/index.html

Kurt Schwitters, Untitled (Golf Tee), 1947, Oil, wood, paper, shells, stone and golf-tee assemblage on corrugated board, 26.7 x 20.3 cms (10 1/2 x 8 ins), KS13786 (retrieved 25.2.19 https://abstractcritical.com/note/kurt-schwitters-collages-and-assemblages-1920-1947/index.html)

SCHWITTERS was born in Germany but was forced to leave and went to live in Norway before coming to the UK in 1940, where he eventually settled in Cumbria.  When he came to the UK his work developed into using natural objects and turning them into sculptures and buildings.  Before he died, he was creating a Merz Barn close to his home in which he dramatically changed the interior by using found objects.  After he died the Merz Barn was neglected for many years until the artist Richard Hamilton arranged for the surviving artwork inside the barn to be removed for safe keeping to the University of Newcastle’s Hatton Gallery in 1965, where it is now on public view. The barn itself remains standing and can be visited.

He had created two other Merz buildings in his lifetime, one in Germany and one in Norway – both of which were destroyed by the establishments of those countries as being too anarchistic.

The end wall of the Merz Barn in the Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle. Photo courtesy The Hatton Gallery. (retrieved 25.2.19 – https://merzbarnlangdale.wordpress.com/)

REFERENCES:  Wikipedia,

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kurt-schwitters-1912 (accessed 25.2.19)

https://abstractcritical.com/note/kurt-schwitters-collages-and-assemblages-1920-1947/index.html (accessed 25.2.19)

www.brittanica.com (accessed 25.2.19)

Richard HAMILTON

b. 1922, d. 2011

HAMILTON was an English painter and collage artist who is considered to be one of the founders of Pop Art.  Pop Art is an art movement that emerged in the 1950’s and became a hugely influential, particularly in the music scene, in the USA and Great Britain in the 1960’s. Hamilton defined “Pop Art” as ‘Popular (designed for a mass audience), Transient (short term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low cost, Mass produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big business’.

He designed the front cover for the Beatles album, which simply became known as ‘The White Album’, because the front cover was completely white with just the name of “The Beatles” embossed on the front cover. Hamilton later said that his idea for the album reflected his habit to look for the opposite, because the front cover of the band’s previous album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was highly illustrated. Paradoxically, Hamilton designed a poster to go inside the album which was a collage of photographs of private photos of the band.

Hamilton used many different forms of imagery in his collage work, including newspapers, magazines, advertising and photographs.  He painted over photographs and made paintings from photographs, in line with his habit of reflecting the opposite. In his later years, he even made collages on computers and used computer painting programmes to produce inkjet prints. 

I particularly like Hamilton’s work in the Pop Art genre, as it reminds me very much of my early teenage years ……

REFERENCES: 

https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-white-album-how-richard-hamilton-brought-conceptual-art-to-the-beatles (accessed 21.2.20)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hamilton_(artist)#Art_market (accessed 21.7.20)

Henri MATISSE

b. 1869, d. 1954

Although most famous for his paintings, in his later years, Matisse started to use paper and scissors to create art, which he called ‘painting with scissors’. It was out of the adversity of an acrimonious divorce which led to ill health, that this style was born.

He used bright colours and simple shapes within his works which together created simple, joyous pieces of art.  Although very simple in appearance, the shapes he created are full of life and exude an energy which I find very compelling and drawn to.  To me, it shows that Matisse, despite being in ill health, and surrounded by the tribulations of the second world war (he was living in occupied France during this period) was still full of life and creativity.  This showed through the boldness of his pictures and the brightness of the colours he used.  Looking at Matisse’s collage work instantly makes me feel happy and optimistic!

He was very influenced in his later years by the vivid colours and bright sunlight of the South of France and later, Morocco. He incorporated this into his collage work, known as The Cut-Outs. Matisse’s ‘Cut-Outs’ utilised his love of bright colour with the intricacy of cutting out simple shapes from painted paper.  He used gouache to initially paint the paper from which he then cut out shapes to form his work.  One of his works, The Swimming Pool, utilises a room in which he has recreated a swimming pool scene around the walls to depict swimmers and divers.  The figures in the work reflect the fluid movement of the swimmers and divers bodies with the water splashing.  It is a very evocative visualisation of movement and shape.

The Swimming Pool in Matisse’s dining room at the Hôtel Régina, Nice, 1952. Photo: Lydia Delectorskaya. © 2014 Succession H. Matisse

https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/matisse/the-swimming-pool.html (retrieved 20.7.20)

The work was later removed from the Hôtel Régina and recreated at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) utilising as far as possible, Matisse’s original work which was mounted on a wall papered with burlap. The original burlap was replaced as it had deteriorated too much over time. 

Matisse’s cut-out work is vibrant, innovative and fun. It is a simple technique which is highly effective and uses colour to starkly contrast the images.  The resulting effects are uncluttered and impactive on the emotions of the viewer, creating, to me anyway, a sense of joy and celebration of the simplicity of the images he was portraying.  I imagine how he must have carried out his work; I’ve read that he used large scissors, but the intricacy of some of the cutting would undoubtedly have had to have been made with finer tools. Maybe. But the fact that he used the space he had – his bedroom – to cut and pin to the wall the shapes he was cutting, enabled him to change his mind and move the images around as his work evolved, is a very freeing form of art. I doubt that this feeling of freedom could be achieved using paint on a flat surface as in his earlier work. 

I particularly love this work. To me this depicts a diver leaping into a vibrant water world, and is particularly joyous to me.  I wonder if Matisse saw his work in the way that we are seeing it today? He worked in his bedroom, where he also lived, and where he was suffering from cancer; there must have been so much material all around him, in addition to the day to day detritus of living. Whereas we now see each piece individually.  I wonder if he saw the individuality in each piece?

References:

http://www.henri-matisse.net/cut_outs.html

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/apr/14/henri-matisse-cut-outs-tate-modern-review

https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/matisse/the-cut-outs.html