A black-and-white geometric lithograph of stacked abstract blocks

A dense mosaic of rectangles, squares and bars printed in solid black, grey stipple, checkerboard and fine cross-hatch, massed in the middle of a cream sheet. Small printed oddments are set among them: a figure in striped stockings, a ring of concentric circles, a telegraph pole with its wires, the letters M and Ex. The blocks pile up like buildings seen head-on, though nothing in the print is a building.

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) was a German artist who built an entire practice from what other people threw away. From 1919 he gave the name Merz to his collages and assemblages, composing tram tickets, wrappers, printed scraps and worn paper into taut abstract structures, and extending the idea into poetry, typography and the architectural Merzbau in his Hanover house. Close to Dada without ever formally joining it, he was condemned as degenerate by the Nazi regime and fled in 1937 to Norway and then to Britain, where he died in Kendal. His work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, Tate and the Sprengel Museum Hannover.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.