A Merz collage keyed to brown and gold

Cut paper laid over cut paper, worked in brown, gold and black. The materials were ordinary and disposable, and Schwitters used them precisely because they were — Merz was a way of making art from the leavings of a city. The result is an abstract surface whose order comes from placement and edge alone. The arrangement is sparse, the empty ground doing as much work as the paper. The key is dark throughout.

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.