Live Auction 20651Impressionist and Modern Art Day and Works on Paper Sale
KURT SCHWITTERS (1887-1948)
Lot 475 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF ELLEN R. SUDDRETH, JULIE R. BAKER AND HENRY S. ROSENTHAL

KURT SCHWITTERS (1887-1948)

Ohne Titel (Fotografien mit Sorgfalt)

Closed4 March 2022

Estimate

GBP 15,000–20,000

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KURT SCHWITTERS (1887-1948)
Ohne Titel (Fotografien mit Sorgfalt)
signed and dated 'Kurt Schwitters 1947' (on the artist's mount)
oil, printed paper, paper and shoe sole collage on plywood laid down on the artist's mount
image: 6 3⁄8 x 4 3⁄8 in. (16 x 11 cm.)
artist's mount: 12 5⁄8 x 9 5⁄8 in. (32 x 24.5 cm.)
Executed in 1947

Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles.
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in 1960.

Specialist note


Ohne Titel (Fotografien mit Sorgfalt) is a Merz collage from Schwitters' last years when the artist was living in the Lake District in England. Forced into exile from Norway where he had fled Nazi Germany to live with his son Ernst, Schwitters had again been forced to flee to England when the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940.
Heavily layered with a wide range of torn and fragmented scraps, this Merzbild is typical of Schwitters' late style being more freely and intuitively constructed than his earlier more classic, self-conscious and geometric constructions. Along with an increasing organic quality to his work of the 1930s and 1940s Schwitters' collages reflected the artist's assured confidence and command of his medium.