Merz 88. Red Stroke

1918

Germany’s collapse transforms his art

Germany’s economic, political and military collapse at the end of the First World War changes his art dramatically: by his own account, what he had learned at the academy was of no use and new things had to be made out of the fragments — this is Merz, like a revolution within him.

February 1918

Hanover Secession show and contact with Walden

After showing Expressionist paintings at the Hanover Secession, Schwitters comes into contact with Herwarth Walden, whose gallery Der Sturm is in Berlin.

June 1918

Two ‘Abstractions’ at the Der Sturm gallery

At Walden’s gallery in Berlin he shows two ‘Abstraktionen’, semi-abstract Expressionist landscapes.

autumn 1918

Meets the Berlin avant-garde

He meets Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch and Jean Arp; Hausmann recalled how Schwitters introduced himself at the Café des Westens: ‘I’m a painter,’ he said, ‘and I nail my pictures together.’ He remains close to Höch and Hausmann for the rest of his career.

June 1919

First solo exhibition at Der Sturm

His first solo exhibition opens at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin in June 1919; together with the poem published that August, it makes him a well-known artist by the end of the year.

August 1919

The poem ‘An Anna Blume’ is published

The Dadaist, nonsensical love poem ‘An Anna Blume’ is published in August 1919, with the word ‘Dada’ on its cover.