Winning New Freedom. Intersections of Text and Image in the Arts of Kurt Schwitters

German Studies;Kurt Schwitters;Text and Image;Graphic Design;Typography;European Avant-Garde;Germanic Languages and Literature;Humanities;Germanic Languages & Literatures

McMurray, HannahHell, Julia C ;

University of Michigan

关键词: German Studies;    Kurt Schwitters;    Text and Image;    Graphic Design;    Typography;    European Avant-Garde;    Germanic Languages and Literature;    Humanities;    Germanic Languages & Literatures;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/138607/hanmcm_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This dissertation brings together the theoretical essays of German avant-garde writer, artist and designer, Kurt Schwitters (1887- 1948), with his fine and applied art, in order to examine three sites where text and image converge - typography, graphic design, and collage arts. As such, it is positioned within an important, but limited body of scholarship that approaches Schwitters;; work in an interdisciplinary manner.I consider artwork that is central to Schwitters;; oeuvre - his collage arts, for example - for which he is best known. In addition, however, I examine aspects of his work that have received little scholarly attention, such as his graphic design work, typographical designs for a new script, and an exhibition that he co-curated with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. I therefore bring Schwitters;; work into dialogue with other contemporary artists and theorists of typography, including Walter Porstmann; Bauhaus professors Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, and Moholy-Nagy; members of avant-garde groups, De Stijl, Theo van Doesburg, and Dada, John Heartfield, and Hannah Hoech; and proponents of New Typography, Jan Tschichold, Paul Renner, and Max Burchartz. In doing so, I position Schwitters within the networks of the broader European avant-garde.I make three main arguments in the course of this dissertation. Firstly, I claim that in addition to working indiscriminately across media, Schwitters did not see his work as media or art form specific. I show that, on the contrary, the artist purposely challenged and shifted perceived borders, such as those between text and image, as well as fine and applied arts. I suggest, therefore, that approaching Schwitters;; work from just one of these angles significantly limits our understanding of it. Secondly, by examining Schwitters;; working practice and collaboration with other artists of the European avant-gardes, I counter the often commonly held notion that Schwitters was as an outsider to such circles. Instead, I posit him as an active and important figure within them. Finally, I show that much of Schwitters;; montage work is deeply rooted in self-citationality through the incorporation of material he originally created for other purposes - be it literary work or that from the applied arts. While this could be seen as purely egoistic, I argue that Schwitters used self-referentiality as a means to challenge the boundaries between these different art forms. As a result, he both equates the applied arts with the fine arts, and reveals his commissioned graphic design work to be a core part of his oeuvre.