Editing Kurt Schwitters (section)

==Exile, 1937–1948==

===Norway===
[[File:Entartete Kunst, Degenerate Art exhibition catalogue, 1937, p. 23, Johannes Molzahn, Jean Metzinger, Kurt Schwitters.jpg|thumb|Entartete Kunst, [[Degenerate Art Exhibition]] catalogue, 1937, p. 23, [[Johannes Molzahn]], [[Jean Metzinger]] (''[[En Canot]]''), Kurt Schwitters]]

As the political situation in Germany under the [[Nazis]] continued to deteriorate throughout the 1930s, Schwitters's work began to be included in the [[Degenerate Art|''Entartete Kunst'' (Degenerate Art)]] touring exhibition organised by the Nazi party from 1933. He lost his contract with Hanover City Council in 1934, and examples of his work in German museums were confiscated and publicly ridiculed in 1935. By the time his close friends Christof and Luise Spengemann and their son Walter were arrested by the [[Gestapo]] in August 1936<ref name=archive2>{{cite web |last1=Schröder |first1=Silke |last2=Husslik |first2=Jürgen |last3=Gottfried |first3=Sagitta |title=Kurt & Ernst Schwitters Archive |url=http://www.schwitters-stiftung.de/english/bio-ks2.html |url-status=live |website=Schwitters-stiftung.de |publisher=Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG |location=Hanover |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080523104655/http://www.schwitters-stiftung.de/english/bio-ks2.html |archive-date=23 May 2008}}</ref> the situation had clearly become perilous.

On 2 January 1937 Schwitters, wanted for an "interview" with the Gestapo,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stunned.org/kdeE.htm |title=Stunned Art |publisher=Stunned.org |date=26 December 1936 |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828183848/http://www.stunned.org/kdeE.htm |archive-date=28 August 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> fled to Norway to join his son Ernst, who had already left Germany on 26 December 1936. His wife Helma decided to remain in Hanover, to manage their four properties.<ref name=archive2/> In the same year, his Merz pictures were included in the ''Entartete Kunst'' exhibition in Munich, making his return impossible.

Helma visited Schwitters in Norway for a few months each year up to the outbreak of World War II. The joint celebrations for his mother Henriette's 80th birthday and his son Ernst's engagement, held in Oslo on 2 June 1939, would be the last time the two met.

Schwitters started a second Merzbau while in exile in [[Lysaker]], near [[Oslo]], in 1937, but abandoned it in 1940 when the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] invaded; this Merzbau was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 1951. His hut on the Norwegian island of Hjertøya, near [[Molde (town)|Molde]], is also frequently regarded as a Merzbau. For decades this building was more or less left to rot, but measures have now been taken to preserve the interior.<ref>See the Kurt Schwitters Project at Henie Ostad art centre in Norway.{{cite web|url=http://www.hok.no/kurt-schwitters.4819348.html |title=THE KURT SCHWITTERS ROOM – Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter |access-date=18 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420004725/http://www.hok.no/kurt-schwitters.4819348.html |archive-date=20 April 2013}}</ref>

===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]].

===London===
After obtaining his freedom Schwitters moved to London, hoping to make good on the contacts that he had built up over his period of internment. He first moved to an attic flat at 3 St Stephen's Crescent, [[Paddington]]. It was here that he met his future companion, Edith Thomas:

<blockquote>“He knocked on her door to ask how the boiler worked, and that was that. [...] She was 27 – half his age. He called her Wantee, because she was always offering tea." Gretel Hinrichsen quoted in ''The Telegraph''<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9810512/Kurt-Schwitters-inspiration-of-Pop-Art.html ''Kurt Schwitters, inspiration of pop art''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205042153/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9810512/Kurt-Schwitters-inspiration-of-Pop-Art.html |date=5 December 2017 }} by Mark Hudson in [[The Daily Telegraph]], 27 January 2013</ref></blockquote>

In London he made contact with and mixed with a range of artists, including [[Naum Gabo]], [[László Moholy-Nagy]] and [[Ben Nicholson]]. He exhibited in a number of galleries in the city but with little success; at his first solo exhibition at The Modern Art Gallery in December 1944, forty works were displayed, priced between 15 and 40 [[Guinea (British coin)|guineas]], but only one was bought.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/artsales/9816335/Art-sales-Kurt-Schwitters-material-world.html ''Art Sales: Kurt Schwitters' Material World''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205194544/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/artsales/9816335/Art-sales-Kurt-Schwitters-material-world.html |date=5 December 2017 }} by Colin Gleadell, in ''The Telegraph'', 22 January 2013</ref>

During his years in London, the shift in Schwitters's work continued towards an organic element that augmented the mass-produced ephemera of previous years with natural forms and muted colours. Pictures such as ''Small Merzpicture With Many Parts'' 1945–6,<ref>In The Beginning Was Merz, Meyer-Buser, Orchard, Hatje Kantz, p. 163</ref> for example, used objects found on a beach, including pebbles and smooth shards of porcelain.

In August 1942 he moved with his son to 39 Westmoreland Road, [[Barnes, London|Barnes]], London. In October 1943 he learnt that his Merzbau in Hanover had been destroyed in [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] bombing. In April 1944 he suffered his first stroke, at the age of 56, which left him temporarily [[paralysis|paralyzed]] on one side of his body. His wife Helma died of cancer on 29 October 1944, although Schwitters only heard of her death in December.

===The Lake District===
[[File:ForKate.jpg|thumb|left|''For Käte'', 1947 Private Collection]]

Schwitters first visited the [[Lake District]] on holiday with Edith Thomas in September 1942. He moved there permanently on 26 June 1945, to 2 Gale Crescent [[Ambleside]]. However, after another stroke in February of the following year and further illness, he and Edith moved to a more easily accessible house at 4 Millans Park.

During his time in Ambleside Schwitters created a sequence of proto-[[pop art]] pictures, such as ''For Käte'', 1947, after the encouragement from his friend, [[Kate Steinitz|Käte Steinitz]]. Having emigrated to the United States in 1936, Steinitz sent Schwitters letters describing life in the emerging consumer society, and wrapped the letters in pages of comics to give a flavour of the new world, which she encouraged Schwitters to 'Merz'.<ref>In The Beginning Was Merz, Meyer-Buser, Orchard, Hatje Kantz, p. 292</ref>

In March 1947, Schwitters decided to recreate the Merzbau and found a suitable location in a barn at Cylinders Farm, [[Elterwater]], which was owned by Harry Pierce, whose portrait Schwitters had been commissioned to paint. Having been forced by a lack of other income to paint portraits and popularist landscape pictures suitable for sale to the local residents and tourists, Schwitters received notification shortly before his 60th birthday that he had been awarded a £1,000 fellowship to be transferred to him via the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York City in order to enable him to repair or re-create his previous Merz constructions in Germany or Norway.<ref>See Adrian Sudhalter,[http://sprengel-museum.de/bilderarchiv/sprengel_deutsch/downloaddokumente/pdf/ks2007_sudhalter_schwitters_and_moma.pdf Kurt Schwitters and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064352/http://sprengel-museum.de/bilderarchiv/sprengel_deutsch/downloaddokumente/pdf/ks2007_sudhalter_schwitters_and_moma.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> Instead he used it for the "Merzbarn" in Elterwater. Schwitters worked on the Merzbarn daily, travelling the five miles between his home and the barn, except for when illness kept him away. On 7 January 1948 he received the news that he had been granted British citizenship. The following day, on 8 January, Schwitters died from acute [[pulmonary edema]] and [[myocarditis]], in [[Kendal]] Hospital.

He was buried on 10 January at [[St Mary's Church, Ambleside]]. His grave was unmarked until 1966 when a stone was erected with the inscription ''Kurt Schwitters – Creator of Merz''. The stone remains as a memorial even though his body was disinterred and reburied in the {{Interlanguage link multi|Stadtfriedhof Engesohde|de}} in [[Hanover]] in 1970, the grave being marked with a marble copy of his 1929 sculpture ''Die Herbstzeitlose''.