Following World War I, Schwitters, who was associated with the Dada movement, coined the term "Merz" to describe his enduring ambition to unify art and life. In this Merzbild, or Merz picture, Schwitters combined seemingly worthless debris—advertisements, newspaper scraps, diagrams—into an ordered composition set within a handmade frame. Close inspection of the collaged materials reveals maps, a listing for a doctor of venereal disease, and the German phrase that gives the work its title: "Plan der Liebe," or "Plan of Love."
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Medium:Cut and torn pasted papers, cellophane, tempera, nails, fabric, ink, and graphite, mounted on illustration and fiber boards, with artist-made wood frame
Credit Line:The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006
Object Number:2006.32.57
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): KS/XXIII
the artist (on consignment ca. 1923 to Galerie der Sturm, Berlin); [Galerie Rudolf Springer, Berlin]; [Berggruen & Cie, Paris]; [Sidney Janis, New York, in 1952; sold by February 1953 to Steinberg]; Muriel Kallis Steinberg, Chicago (by 1953–2006; her gift to MMA)
Berlin. Galerie Der Sturm. 1920s.
New York. Sidney Janis Gallery. "Collage, Painting, Relief and Sculpture by Schwitters," October 13–November 8, 1952, no. 26.
Arts Club of Chicago. "Collage, Painting, Relief and Sculpture by Schwitters," November 25–December 16, 1952, no. 26.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "An American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection," May 21–September 27, 1981, unnumbered cat. (p. 25).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Kurt Schwitters," June 10–October 1, 1985, no. 197.
Sprengel Museum Hannover. "Kurt Schwitters 1887–1948," February 4–April 20, 1986, no. 130.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 17, 2007–February 3, 2008, extended to March 2, 2008, no. 3.
Houston. Menil Collection. "Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage," October 22, 2010–January 30, 2011, no. 30.
Patrick Waldberg. Max Ernst. Paris, 1958, ill. p. 161.
Hilton Kramer. "Modernist Show Moves Met Firmly into Art of 20th Century." New York Times (May 22, 1981), p. C21.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1980–1981. New York, 1981, p. 61.
William S. Lieberman inAn American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1981, p. 24, ill. p. 25 (color).
Karin Orchard and Isabel Schulz, ed. Kurt Schwitters: Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. 2, 1923–1936. Ostfildern-Ruit, 2003, pp. 40, 129, no. 1092, ill.
Dorothea Dietrich inDada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris. Ed. Leah Dickerman. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., 2005, pp. 164–65, pl. 138.
Sabine Rewald inAbstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow, Lisa Mintz Messinger, and Nan Rosenthal. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 18–19, no. 3, ill. (color).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, ill. p. 38 (color).
Kurt Schwitters (German, Hanover 1887–1948 Kendal)
1930
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