Winning New Freedom. Intersections of Text and Image in the Arts of Kurt Schwitters

Abstract

This dissertation brings together the theoretical essays of German avant-garde writer, artist and designer, Kurt Schwitters (1887- 1948), with his fine and applied art, in order to examine three sites where text and image converge - typography, graphic design, and collage arts. As such, it is positioned within an important, but limited body of scholarship that approaches Schwitters' work in an interdisciplinary manner.

I consider artwork that is central to Schwitters' oeuvre - his collage arts, for example - for which he is best known. In addition, however, I examine aspects of his work that have received little scholarly attention, such as his graphic design work, typographical designs for a new script, and an exhibition that he co-curated with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. I therefore bring Schwitters' work into dialogue with other contemporary artists and theorists of typography, including Walter Porstmann; Bauhaus professors Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, and Moholy-Nagy; members of avant-garde groups, De Stijl, Theo van Doesburg, and Dada, John Heartfield, and Hannah Hoech; and proponents of New Typography, Jan Tschichold, Paul Renner, and Max Burchartz. In doing so, I position Schwitters within the networks of the broader European avant-garde.

I make three main arguments in the course of this dissertation. Firstly, I claim that in addition to working indiscriminately across media, Schwitters did not see his work as media or art form specific. I show that, on the contrary, the artist purposely challenged and shifted perceived borders, such as those between text and image, as well as fine and applied arts. I suggest, therefore, that approaching Schwitters' work from just one of these angles significantly limits our understanding of it. Secondly, by examining Schwitters' working practice and collaboration with other artists of the European avant-gardes, I counter the often commonly held notion that Schwitters was as an outsider to such circles. Instead, I posit him as an active and important figure within them. Finally, I show that much of Schwitters' montage work is deeply rooted in self-citationality through the incorporation of material he originally created for other purposes - be it literary work or that from the applied arts. While this could be seen as purely egoistic, I argue that Schwitters used self-referentiality as a means to challenge the boundaries between these different art forms. As a result, he both equates the applied arts with the fine arts, and reveals his commissioned graphic design work to be a core part of his oeuvre.