Merz

1919–1920

From friendship to a quarrel with Huelsenbeck

When they first meet in 1919, Richard Huelsenbeck is enthusiastic about Schwitters’s work and promises his help, while Schwitters finds an outlet for Huelsenbeck’s Dada publications; by mid-1920 the two fall out — either over the success of the poem ‘An Anna Blume’, which Huelsenbeck thought un-Dadaist, or over quarrels about Schwitters’s contribution to ‘Dadaco’, a Dada atlas Huelsenbeck was editing.

from 1920

His work is regularly shown in the United States

Thanks to his lifelong patron and friend Katherine Dreier, his work is exhibited regularly in the United States from 1920 onwards.

1920s

Lecture and recital tours across Europe

Together with other members of the international avant-garde — Jean Arp, Raoul Hausmann and Tristan Tzara — he organises and takes part in tours of provocative evening recitals and lectures in Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands and Germany.

1922–1923

Dada evenings in the Netherlands with Van Doesburg

In 1922 Theo van Doesburg organises Dada performances in Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht and The Hague: the Dadaists he invites decline, and the programme is carried by Theo van Doesburg, Nelly van Doesburg (performing as Petrò van Doesburg), Schwitters and sometimes Vilmos Huszár. Schwitters’s solo evening takes place on 13 April 1923 in Drachten, where he later stays often with the local painter Thijs Rinsema and makes collages, probably together with him.

1923–1932

Publishes the periodical ‘Merz’

The periodical appears from 1923 to 1932, each issue devoted to a central theme: no. 5 (1923) is a portfolio of prints by Jean Arp, and double issue 8/9 (1924) is edited and typeset by El Lissitzky, whose friendship proves particularly influential and brings Schwitters’s pictures closer to Constructivism. In all, 21 issues appeared; by numbering, the last is no. 24.

after 1924

Runs the advertising agency Merzwerbe

After the demise of the Der Sturm gallery in 1924 he runs an advertising agency, Merzwerbe, whose clients include Pelikan inks and Bahlsen biscuits. Designs, test prints and proof sheets from these jobs often crop up in his Merz pictures.