Musée Picasso Paris Opens Kurt Schwitters Retrospective 'Le chaos-monde, 1918-1948'
From 6 October 2026 to 7 February 2027, the Musée national Picasso-Paris will showcase 'Kurt Schwitters – Le chaos-monde, 1918-1948' at 5, rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris. This exhibition highlights the work of German artist Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948), who established the Merz movement. Schwitters, originally from Hanover, studied at the Kunst Akademie in Dresden between 1909 and 1914 and was drafted in 1914, later released in 1917. He became well-known for his collages and the sound poem An Anna-Blume. In 1920, he proclaimed Merz as a movement and launched the journal Merz in 1923. After leaving Germany, he moved to Britain, where he created the Merzbarn in 1947. He passed away on 8 January 1948, leaving a legacy that influenced artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Joseph Beuys. Notable works include Merzbild 25 A. Das Sternenbild and the Merzbau.
Key facts
- The exhibition 'Kurt Schwitters – Le chaos-monde, 1918-1948' runs from 6 October 2026 to 7 February 2027 at the Musée national Picasso-Paris, 5, rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris.
- Kurt Schwitters was born in Hanover in 1887 and died on 8 January 1948.
- He studied painting at the Kunst Akademie in Dresden from 1909 to 1914.
- In 1919 he adopted the term 'Merz' from a Privat und Kommerz-Bank advertisement, making it his leitmotif.
- He was excluded from the 1920 International Dada Fair by Richard Huelsenbeck and responded by founding the Merz movement with a manifesto.
- He founded the journal Merz in 1923 and published the sound poem L'Ursonate in its final issue in 1932.
- He appeared in thirteen works at the 1937 'Degenerate Art' exhibition in Munich and subsequently left Germany.
- He began the Merzbarn at Ambleside in the Lake District in 1947 with a grant from MoMA.
Entities
Artists
- Kurt Schwitters
- Raoul Hausmann
- Jean Arp
- Hannah Höch
- Richard Huelsenbeck
- Theo van Doesburg
- El Lissitzky
- Herbert Read
- Ben Nicholson
- Edith Thomas
- Ernst Schwitters
- Helma Fischer
- Man Ray
- Lyonel Feininger
- Constantin Brancusi
- Joan Miró
- Max Ernst
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Joseph Beuys
- Arman
- Mario Merz
- Ferdinand Cheval
- Pablo Picasso
Institutions
- Musée national Picasso-Paris
- Kunst Akademie Dresden
- Die Brücke
- Galerie Der Sturm
- Privat und Kommerz-Bank
- Merz
- De Stijl
- Bauhaus
- Sprengel Museum Hanover
- Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Tate
- MoMA
- Beaux Arts
- Commerz- und Privatbank
Locations
- Paris
- France
- Hanover
- Germany
- Dresden
- Berlin
- Prague
- Czech Republic
- Weimar
- Munich
- Lysaker
- Oslo
- Norway
- United Kingdom
- Isle of Man
- London
- Ambleside
- Lake District
- Düsseldorf
- England