The pure forms of abstract art

In 1920, with Merz-art in its early stages, Schwitters proclaimed, “In principle, Merz aspires only for art, because one cannot serve two masters.”106 _{The statement emerged in response to the Berlin} Dadaists when criticising Schwitters’ apolitical approach to art and Merz’ lack of commitment to direct social engagement and change. Schwitters, however, maintained that not only did Merz not have a political agenda, it should not be perceived as a kind of anti-art or anti-culture either, such as Huelsenbeck’s version of Dada was in the eyes of Schwitters. According to the artist, Merz was an independent creation, it did not serve anything or anyone, nor did it have a utilitarian purpose, it simply aspired for art – for pure, abstract form. Schwitters wrote:

It is being held against me that I did not live with the times when my work did not somehow reflect the contemporary age. I maintain that abstract art, and only abstract art, reflects our time, because it is the latest logical stage in the development of art in the our time as we know it, and this is not a matter of years or decades; rather, it will be the art of the next thousand years. The so-called New Objectivity in painting is a transient, temporary and partial reaction; as such, the use of the name is completely wrong, since the new and objective art in our time is the abstraction.107

Abstraction according to Schwitters did not simply mean a non-figurative and formal artistic language cleansed of any trace of the individual artist maker. Neither was it an expressive gesture attempting to channel the immediacy of a formless sensation. It meant something in between, placing the subject at the centre of the work as the one who’s beating heart gave the work direction. Towards the end of his life, Schwitters wrote:

105

The English translation of the text “Merz (Für den Ararat geschrieben 19. Dezember 1920)” (1920) is published in Das Literarische Werk, vol. 5.

106

Translated from, “Merz erstrebt aus Prinzip nur die Kunst, weil kein Mensch zween Herren dienen kann” (1981: 78). From the text “Merz (Für den Ararat geschrieben 19. Dezember 1920)” (1920).

107

Translated from “Man hält mir entgegen, dass ich die Zeit nicht miterlebte, wenn ich sie nicht irgendwie im Kunstwerk wiederspiegelte. Ich behaupte, dass die abstrakte Kunst, und nur die abstrakte kunst, unsere Zeit spiegelt, denn sie ist die letzte logische Phase in der Entwicklung der Kunst in der ganzen uns bekannten Zeit, und sie ist keine Angelegenheit von Jahren oder Jahrzehnten, sondern sie ist voraussichtlich die Kunst der Nächsten Tausend Jahre. Die sogenannte neue Sachlichkeit in der Malerei ist eine vorübergehende, zeitliche und parteiische Reaktion; zudem ist der name total verkehrt angewendet, denn die neue und sachliche Kunst unserer Zeit ist die Abstraktion” (1981: 341). From the text “Ich und meine Ziele” [Myself and My Aims] (1931).

Abstract art is a way, it is one way of expressing one’s feelings … The picture is finished when you can’t take away or put on anything without disturbing the present rhythm … The material gives a certain movement, another may assist or fight it, and the composition collects all single movements to a rhythm … Perhaps one can feel the rhythm of London and give a similar rhythm in an abstract picture. (385)108 Schwitters’ abstraction meant art as liberation. From the turmoil in the wake of World War I, with the Weimar Republic struggling to redefine Germany, Schwitters’ inclination was to reject all things with a capacity to cause problems. The problems of his contemporary age, a moment of crisis, called upon art to elevate human beings. Schwitters’ wrote:

Only equilibrium is the goal of the artwork, and only art is its purpose. Art does not want to influence or affect, it wants to liberate, from life, from all the things that burden humans such as national, political or financial problems. Art aspires for the pure human being, free from concerns over the state, political parties or food.109

If the reality of the artist’s contemporary age could be seen as an excuse for a desire to escape into elevated states of being through art, then it might be inferred that Schwitters collected his art material from the forsaken zone – the impoverished everyday life of Hannover. Once the material flotsam entered the house, it became the building material for the parallel Merz-reality. The immediate contradiction of utilising found material for the creation of pure, abstract art was overcome by redefining the properties of these found objects. A process of transformation allowed the individual piece of material to cross a gap and become part of the overall artistic composition, and the thesis widens the scope of this transition by proposing that the material transformation began as soon as the material entered the house in Waldhausenstrasse. In between the complete autonomy of the pure work of art and its complete engagement with the context that it derived from was a dwelling house. If the work of art and found material from the outset marked an interior/exterior dichotomy, then the house as domestic setting became the mediator. Section 3.3.1 below looks further into this relation.

To perceive the dwelling house as a mediator between the work of abstract art at the core of its structure and a problematic external context – which is walled out while also invited in – addresses the notion of limit. The limit of Schwitters’ dwelling house drew a line around the Merz-work, itself subsuming all differentials in a harmonious coexistence as a delimited work. In the form of a

composition made by an artist weighing each individual piece of material in order to settle its place in the overall equilibrium of forces in the work, the Merz-work gradually withdrew into itself. The indifference to the surrounding context was seen to elevate the work – in Merzbau’s case perhaps helped on the way to this purification by the eventual whitewashing of the bricolage construction. Schwitters wrote, “The work of art differs from nature as a composition in a limited space, because

108

From the unpublished text “Abstract Art” (1940-46) written by Schwitters in English at the time he was living in the UK.

109

Translated from “Nur Gleichgewicht ist das Ziel des Kunstwerks, und Kunst ihr Zweck. Kunst will nicht beeinflussen und nicht wirken, sondern befreien, vom Leben, von allen Dingen, die den Menschen belasten, wie nationale, politische oder wirtschaftliche Kämpfe. Kunst will den reinen Menschen, unbelastet von Staat, Partei und Nahrungssorgen” (1981: 341). From the text “Ich und meine Ziele” [Myself and My Aims] (1931).

only in a limited space is it possible to evaluate all the parts against each other.”110 _{He then added,} “The objective of art is emotional value; the means to achieve this, the composition. The emotional value cannot be explained, the composition is very easy to explain.”111 _{The composition that was easy} to explain was the non-hierarchical delimited plane of collected material in a state of equilibrium eradicating any remaining differentials through its harmoniously balanced autonomy. Once inscribed in the work, a piece of material rejected all relations to the exterior; there was no exterior and the material had no past. In contrast, the emotional value, which according to Schwitters could not be explained, was a formless presence made possible by the work through Entformung [deforming/ demoulding].