Kurt Schwitters

The German-born artist Kurt Schwitters is best known for his psychological collages and his large-scale sculptures that prefigured the installation art of the late twentieth century. He also experimented with sound art, typography and architecture and wrote poetry and prose. Fleeing the Nazis in 1937, he left Germany for Norway where he was interned on the Lofoten Islands and, after escaping, by the British on the Isle of Man. He died in Kendal in the Lake District in 1948. This unique volume brings together three of Schwitters s short stories written during his time in England The Idiot, The Landlady and The Story of the Flat and Round Painter with a poem, London Symphony , all of which he sent to the writer, publisher and fellow exile Stefan Themerson. Alongside these works the book contains a personal appreciation of Schwitters by his friend, the Surrealist pioneer E.L.T. Mesens, commissioned for Art News in 1958 and unavailable since then, together with previously unpublished responses by the artist s son Ernst Schwitters and Mesens s further comments. Jasia Reichardt s introduction places these remarkable documents in the context of Schwitters s life and career and explores the importance of his legacy. This important publication of previously unknown material from one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in avant-garde art and literature.