Kurt Schwitters: Context & Analysis
Context:
Born in Hanover in 1887, Kurt Schwitters attended the Dresden Academy of Art and at the end of the First World War made contact with Dada groups in Europe. During his lifetime, he worked across many different art disciplines, creative traditions, art forms and media, and maintained an extraordinary output of collages, paintings, poetry, performance, audio arts, theatre, photography, sculpture, installation projects. Richard Hamilton, Sir Peter Blake, Eduardo Paolozzi, Robert Rauschenberg and others acknowledge Schwitters' influence on the development of Pop Art in the early 1960s. Schwitters' influence on the development of contemporary art, sculpture and architecture continues to be widely acknowledged. Kurt made a decision to make work out of the destruction of war. He collected many items for example birth certificates, photographs and personal items belonging to families. He created masterpieces of allegorical meanings of unity and togetherness that although they have lost so much and they should come together to build a stronger and more unite Germany.
Born in Hanover in 1887, Kurt Schwitters attended the Dresden Academy of Art and at the end of the First World War made contact with Dada groups in Europe. During his lifetime, he worked across many different art disciplines, creative traditions, art forms and media, and maintained an extraordinary output of collages, paintings, poetry, performance, audio arts, theatre, photography, sculpture, installation projects. Richard Hamilton, Sir Peter Blake, Eduardo Paolozzi, Robert Rauschenberg and others acknowledge Schwitters' influence on the development of Pop Art in the early 1960s. Schwitters' influence on the development of contemporary art, sculpture and architecture continues to be widely acknowledged. Kurt made a decision to make work out of the destruction of war. He collected many items for example birth certificates, photographs and personal items belonging to families. He created masterpieces of allegorical meanings of unity and togetherness that although they have lost so much and they should come together to build a stronger and more unite Germany.
What can I see?
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Analysis
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In the image above I can identify that it is a collage which makes it look abstract. The photograph is built up of many different unique images and text. The genre is portrait and abstract. The photo is built up of different layers, these layer are made from ruins of the destructive bombing in world war 2. These layers are made from paper, images and different texts.
In the centre it almost looks bare as there is hardly any colourful images. A bit higher than the centre is the top of a mans face, it has also been layered with some older looking text.
In the bottom left corner there is around 4 different layers of brown paper with one layer of text. This creates a great affect as the text its being transferred through to the second layer of brown paper. Almost like the affect you get from the different filters of layers on Photoshop.
Feelings and mood:
This image reminds me of childhood and when I used to do arts and crafts, although this image has a deeper meaning as it is piecing the life's of German people together. But as this image also has a fun side about it, it is important as it shows that the German people are building themselves back and binding together after a disaster such as world war 2. The mood in the image is upsetting as I believe that it shows disaster and unfortunate events. That it makes the people forgotten, remembered. The thing which makes it interesting is the boringness of the image and it made me chose it because it was boring and I wanted to find an interesting point of the photograph.
My opinion:
I chose this piece because it originally didn't attract me because it looked really uninteresting and boring. But as I took a deeper look at the image I was able to identify what Schwitters was trying to do. And what idea and meaning he was try to put forward. I love that even though the image is boring that I did find it rather intriguing which made the image intrigue me to find it interesting.
Composition:
I believe that the focal point on this image is the face in the top middle of the photograph. I believe this because as I first look at the image my eyes first notice the face. This could be because half of it is missing or it is the only interesting point on the photograph. The image is asymmetrical I think that because the photograph doesn't have the same amount of layers on one side as it does on the other. This creates an unbalance on each side of the photograph. The left side has a heavier side compared to the right side.
1st my eye looks at the top centre where half of the face is this is because a face is usually full and all of it is there but in this image only half of the face is there. The second place I look is where there is a red checker patch on the top left side of the photograph.
Colour & Mood:
The colours which has been used is dull and plain colours which gives an overall muted outlook on this image.
In the centre it almost looks bare as there is hardly any colourful images. A bit higher than the centre is the top of a mans face, it has also been layered with some older looking text.
In the bottom left corner there is around 4 different layers of brown paper with one layer of text. This creates a great affect as the text its being transferred through to the second layer of brown paper. Almost like the affect you get from the different filters of layers on Photoshop.
Feelings and mood:
This image reminds me of childhood and when I used to do arts and crafts, although this image has a deeper meaning as it is piecing the life's of German people together. But as this image also has a fun side about it, it is important as it shows that the German people are building themselves back and binding together after a disaster such as world war 2. The mood in the image is upsetting as I believe that it shows disaster and unfortunate events. That it makes the people forgotten, remembered. The thing which makes it interesting is the boringness of the image and it made me chose it because it was boring and I wanted to find an interesting point of the photograph.
My opinion:
I chose this piece because it originally didn't attract me because it looked really uninteresting and boring. But as I took a deeper look at the image I was able to identify what Schwitters was trying to do. And what idea and meaning he was try to put forward. I love that even though the image is boring that I did find it rather intriguing which made the image intrigue me to find it interesting.
Composition:
I believe that the focal point on this image is the face in the top middle of the photograph. I believe this because as I first look at the image my eyes first notice the face. This could be because half of it is missing or it is the only interesting point on the photograph. The image is asymmetrical I think that because the photograph doesn't have the same amount of layers on one side as it does on the other. This creates an unbalance on each side of the photograph. The left side has a heavier side compared to the right side.
1st my eye looks at the top centre where half of the face is this is because a face is usually full and all of it is there but in this image only half of the face is there. The second place I look is where there is a red checker patch on the top left side of the photograph.
Colour & Mood:
The colours which has been used is dull and plain colours which gives an overall muted outlook on this image.