KURT SCHWITTERS
- The Art Pioneer Who Ended His Days In Cumbria By Margaret Brecknell Compelled to flee Nazi Germany for no other crime than being an artist, Kurt Schwitters died in a Kendal hospital 75 years ago this month, far from his native land.
H
e was born in the German city of Hanover on 20th June 1887, the only child of a middle-class family. He studied art, as a teenager, at the city’s School of Applied Arts before, in 1909, being recommended by his tutor to attend Dresden’s Academy of Fine Arts. Two years later, four of his pictures were exhibited for the first time at an art gallery in Hanover, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the budding artist. Shortly afterwards, Schwitters applied to study art at the Berlin Academy, but following a short probation period was rejected as being “untalented”. Despite this knockback, Schwitters continued his training in Dresden and his work began to appear regularly at exhibitions in his native Hanover. Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Schwitters returned full-time to Hanover. The following year, he married Helma Fischer and the couple set up home in a flat on the second floor of his parents’ house. Schwitters had suffered from epilepsy since early childhood, which meant that for the early years of the war he was excused from active military service. He was eventually called up in March 1917, but was declared unfit and was instead sent to work as a technical draughtsman at an ironworks just outside Hanover. Schwitters’ early artwork was influenced by the German Expressionist movement. This style may be best described in layman’s terms as art in 192
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
Above: Kurt Schwitters in 1927
www.lancmag.com
