Art SpinMeister on 29 Jul 2009 10:43 am
Schwitters Twitters
Kurt Schwitters, "Merz Picture 25A: The Star Picture" 1920 Montage, collage and oil on cardboard, 104.5 x 79 cm, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf ©1999 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild Kunst, Bonn
This curious poem, “Meatloaf” by Donald Hall, reminded me of the peculiar brilliance of German artist Kurt Schwitters.
Twenty-five years ago, Kurt Schwitters,
I tried to instruct you in baseball
but kept getting distracted, gluing
bits and pieces of world history
alongside personal anecdote
instead of explicating baseball’s
habits. I was K.C. (for Casey)
in stanzas of nine times nine times nine.
Kurt Schwitters appearing in a poem, printed in a modern magazine, over 60 years past his death, caused me to wonder, “What would Schwitters Twitter?” Perhaps in 1936 he would write:
Drunk on victory in the Rhineland the German masses
listen bewildered to their radios:
the Fuhrer is declaring war
on abstract art
It turns out that Kurt tweets on.
rakete bee bee
See more Schwitters Twitters here.
Collage Homage to Kurt Schwitters, by Hank Grebe, 1972, paper on cardboard, 8.5 x 8.5 inches.
