Editing Kurt Schwitters (section)

===The Isle of Man===
[[File:Schwitters Kahn.jpg|thumb|Portrait of friend and fellow German artist, [[Erich Kahn]]]]
Following Nazi Germany's [[Operation Weserübung|invasion of Norway]], Schwitters was amongst a number of German citizens who were interned by the Norwegian authorities at {{ill|Vågan Folk High School|no|Lofoten folkehøgskole}} in [[Kabelvåg]] on the [[Lofoten Islands]],<ref>For a comprehensive account of this period, see Webster, Gwendolen, "Kurt Schwitters on the Lofoten islands", ''Kurt Schwitters Society Journal'', 2011, p. 40–49, {{ISSN|2047-1971}}</ref> Following his release, Schwitters fled to [[Leith]] in [[Scotland]] with his son and daughter-in-law on the Norwegian patrol vessel {{HNoMS|Fridtjof Nansen|1930|2}} between 8 and 18 June 1940. 

Officially an [[enemy alien]], he was moved between various internment camps in Scotland and England before arriving on 17 July 1940 in [[Hutchinson Internment Camp|Hutchinson Camp]] in the [[Isle of Man]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Cooke |first=Rachel |title=Kurt Schwitters: the modernist master in exile |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jan/06/kurt-schwitters-modernist-master-exile |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=6 January 2013 |access-date=26 June 2013 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205042208/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jan/06/kurt-schwitters-modernist-master-exile |archive-date=5 December 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schwitters-stiftung.de/english/bio-ks3.html |title=Kurt Schwitters |website=Kurt and Ernst Schwitters Foundation |access-date=26 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130103072621/http://www.schwitters-stiftung.de/english/bio-ks3.html |archive-date=3 January 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> The camp was situated in a collection of terraced houses around Hutchinson Square in [[Douglas, Isle of Man|Douglas]]. The camp soon comprised some 1,205 internees by end of July 1940,<ref>''Island of Barbed Wire'', Connery Chappel, Corgi Books, London, 1986, p. 53</ref> almost all of whom were German or Austrian. The camp was soon known as "the artists' camp", comprising as it did many artists, writers, university professors and other intellectuals.<ref name="auto">[https://vimeo.com/14359468 The Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain, c. 1933–45] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915004450/https://vimeo.com/14359468 |date=15 September 2016}}, Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson, [[Manx National Heritage]] lecture delivered 10 April 2010</ref> In this environment Schwitters was popular as a character, a [[raconteur]] and as an artist.
[[File:Hutchinson Square, Douglas, Isle of Man - Street on the South side, looking West.JPG|thumb|Street on Hutchinson Square, part of [[Hutchinson Internment Camp]]]]
He was soon provided studio space and took on students, many of whom would later become significant artists in their own right.<ref name="auto"/> He produced over 200 works during his internment, including more portraits than at any other time in his career, many of which he charged for.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/schwitters-britain/schwitters-britain-exhibition-guide-1|title=Schwitters in Britain: Exhibition guide: Room 2|website=Tate|access-date=16 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922095145/https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/schwitters-britain/schwitters-britain-exhibition-guide-1|archive-date=22 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> He contributed at least two portraits to the second art exhibition within the camp in November 1940, and in December he contributed (in English) to the camp newsletter, ''The Camp''.

There was a shortage of art supplies there – at least during the early days of the camp's existence – which meant that the internees had to be resourceful to obtain the materials they needed: they would mix brick dust with sardine oil for paint, dig up clay for sculpture whilst out on walks, and rip up the [[linoleum]] floors to make cuttings which they then pressed through the [[Mangle (machine)|clothes mangle]] to make [[Linocut|linocut prints]].<ref name="auto"/> Schwitters's Merz extension of this included making sculptures in porridge:

<blockquote>"The room stank. A musty, sour, indescribable stink which came from three Dada sculptures which he had created from porridge, no plaster of Paris being available. The porridge had developed mildew and the statues were covered with greenish hair and bluish excrements of an unknown type of bacteria." [[Fred Uhlman]] in his memoir.<ref>Quoted in [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/pop-art-pioneer-is-back-in-the-picture-8468691.html "Pop Art pioneer is back in the picture"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211161049/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/pop-art-pioneer-is-back-in-the-picture-8468691.html |date=11 December 2017}}, by Arifa Akbar in ''[[The Independent]]'', 27 January 2013</ref></blockquote>

Schwitters was well-liked in the camp, and was a welcome distraction from the internment they were suffering. Fellow internees would later recall fondly his curious habits of sleeping under his bed and barking like a dog, as well as his regular Dadaist readings and performances.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/sep/28/guardianobituaries.obituaries Obituary of Klaus Hinrichsen] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205042153/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/sep/28/guardianobituaries.obituaries |date=5 December 2017}}, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 28 September 2004</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/11/a3332611.shtml Freddy Godshaw recollections of Hutchinson Camp on the] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123075559/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/11/a3332611.shtml |date=23 November 2016}} [[BBC]]</ref> However, the epileptic condition which had not surfaced since his childhood began to recur whilst in the camp. His son attributed this to Schwitters's depression at being interned, which he kept hidden from others in the camp.

<blockquote>For the outside world he always tried to put up a good show, but in the quietness of the room I shared with him [...], his painful disillusion was clearly revealed to me. [...] Kurt Schwitters worked with more concentration than ever during internment to stave off bitterness and hopelessness.<ref>Ernst Schwitters's letter in ''Art and News Review'', Saturday 25 October 1958, Vol X, No. 20, p. 8</ref></blockquote>

Schwitters applied as early as October 1940 for release (with the appeal written in English: "As artist, I can not be interned for a long time without danger for my art"),<ref>''Schwitters in Britain'' Tate Britain exhibition exhibits, 30 January – 12 May 2013</ref> but he was refused even after his fellow internees began to be released.

<blockquote>
"I am now the last artist here – all the others are free. But all things are equal. If I stay here, then I have plenty to occupy myself. If I am released, then I will enjoy freedom. If I manage to leave for the U.S., then I will be over there. You carry your own joy with you wherever you go." Letter to Helma Schwitters, April 1941.<ref>quoted in Kurt Schwitters, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1995, p. 310</ref>
</blockquote>

Schwitters was finally released on 21 November 1941, with the help of an intervention from Alexander Dorner, [[Rhode Island School of Design]].