[SCHWITTERS AND THE FRENCH DADAISTS] Merz 4: Banalitäten [Banalities].
Hannover: Redaktion des Merzverlages, Juli 1923. Octavo (22.7 × 14.5 cm). Original staple-stitched printed wrappers; pp. 33-48 with eight reproductions of paintings, photographs, a sculpture, and furniture by Hans Arp, Moholy-Nagy, Schwitters, van Doesburg, Rietveld, A. Segal, and Picasso (credited as Sacipos for "Le Lonvoi"), as well as Dada typographic compositions throughout, printed on pink stock. The last two leaves with tiny tears at the edges; the wrappers with minor toning; else very good. Item #55509
The issue "Banalitäten" is devoted above all to the French Dadaists associated with the journal Proverbe, which, as Schwitters writes, "cultivates banality almost exclusively." He elaborates: "I write about banality; it is the discovery of an unartistic complex and of the unartistic world, and the creation of a Dada work (conscious non-art) from this complex through limitation, nothing more. It is no coincidence that all Dadaists have loved banality greatly, in every form" (p. 41). Schwitters includes texts by Malespine, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Soupault, and Tzara, alongside Arp's "Die Hasenkaserne", Hausmann's "Chaoplasma", El Lissitzky's "Topographie der Typographie", Nebel, and the following works of his own: "dada complet 1", "Banalitäten", "Die zute Tute".
Between 1923 and 1932, Schwitters published a total of twenty-four issues of the journal, through which the Hanover-based artist, graphic designer, and poet positioned himself within the constellation of the European avant-gardes, among other means through collaborative projects with El Lissitzky and Theo van Doesburg. In the first issue of the second volume of the art journal "Ararat", Schwitters defines "Merz" through its demarcation from Dada, drawing a distinction between the politically oriented "Hülsendadaismus", directed "against art and against culture", and the "Kerndadaismus" of Tristan Tzara's circle, which held fast to "the good old traditions of abstract art". While Schwitters shared the artistic convictions of the "Kerndadaisten" (core Dadaists), he insisted on the point that "Merz" did not designate itself as Dadaist. His aim was the "Gesamtkunstwerk", "which unites all art forms into an artistic unity" (Munich, 1921).
Verkauf 180; Motherwell 78; Raabe / Hannich-B. 273.12; Dietzel/Hügel III, 1936; Dada global 110; Schwitters, Typografie und Werbegestaltung 7.
Price: €6,000.00