kurt schwitters
Kurt Schwitters: A Life in Merz Early Life and Education Born: June 20, 1887, in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters was the only child of Eduard and Henriette Schwitters. His father co-owned a ladies' clothing shop. The family’s financial situation improved after selling the business in 1898, allowing them to live off rental income from properties they acquired. He studied art at the Dresden Academy from 1909-1915 alongside artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz, though he seemingly remained unaware of their work at the time. Schwitters suffered his first epileptic seizure in 1901, whic…
The Subject Atlas
A chart of kurt schwitters's corpus mapped not by date but by subject. Spokes are what they painted; rings are when; and the threads between stars reveal the patrons and places that secretly connect them.
Spokes — Subject
Each arm of the atlas gathers works by what they depict: portraits, sacred scenes, mythologies, and the scientific studies. Click a spoke to swing that cluster to the top.
Rings — Career Period
Distance from the center marks time. The innermost ring is the earliest period; the outermost, the final years. Style matures as you move outward.
Threads — Shared Context
Coloured lines link works bound by the same patron, commission, or theme. Trace a context to watch related clusters light up across subjects.
