Kurt Schwitters

German, 1887-1948

Difficult

© Estate of Kurt Schwitters / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

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© Estate of Kurt Schwitters / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Estate of Kurt Schwitters / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Difficult, 1942-1943

Artwork Details

Collection Highlight

Materials

collage

Measurements

sheet: 31 1/4 x 24 inches (79.37 x 60.96 cm); framed: 37 3/4 x 30 3/4 x 2 inches (95.88 x 78.1 x 5.08 cm)

Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Credit

Gift of The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, Inc., 1965

Accession ID

1965:14

Influenced by Cubism, in 1918 Kurt Schwitters began making collages in a style he called “Merzbilder” (or “Merzpictures”). The term “Merz” comes from the German phrase “Kommerz und Privatbank,” which the artist found on a scrap of newsprint. Collages like Difficult were born out of poverty in post–World War I (1914–18) Germany; Schwitters literally created his art out of the physical ruins of the culture. “I felt myself freed [from the war] and had to shout my jubilation out to the world,” he recalled. “Out of Parsimony [frugality] I took whatever I found to do this, because we’re now a poor country.”

Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017