KURT SCHWITTERS (1887-1948)

ʺIn the winter of 1916-1917, Schwitters took a protracted, and belated, honeymoon at Opherdicke in Westphalia, where he became absorbed in landscape painting. It was through landscape painting, by and large, that he began the transition to artistic maturity: at first tentative and fumbling, but from the time of the Opherdicke visit with slowly increasing authority. ʻFirst I succeeded in freeing myself from the literal reproduction of all details,’ he wrote of the changes that had begun in 1914. ʻI contented myself with the intensive treatment of light effects through sketch-like painting (Impressionism)’” ( J. Elderfield, Kurt Schwitters, New York, 1985, p. 14).