Herr Merz. A Graphic Biography on Kurt Schwitters

In 1919 Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) started his own dadaist art movement Merz, in his hometown of Hannover, and became one of the great modernist pioneers. Schwitters interacted with the avantgarde artist of his time, and was himself active in a number of art forms, he shocked the establishment and irritated the dadaists.
His radical indoor structure Merzbau, perhaps the first installation in the world, was way ahead of it’s time, along with the sound poem Ursonate.

Kurt Schwitters fell in love with Norway and stayed there every summer during the 1930s, and when the nazis labeled his art as degenerate in 1937, he went into exile in Norway, before leaving for England in 1940. He built two versions of his Merzbau in Norway (both are now destroyed), in Lysaker, Oslo, and Hjertøya, Molde.

Praise:
‘Lars Fiske’s work with Kurt Schwitters is not only an important pioneering work in Schwitters-studies in Europe. Fiske has transformed the material into a new original artwork in the spirit of Schwitters.’
Lars Mørch Finborud, curator at Henie Onstad Art Center, Oslo

‘It’s a wonderful story Lars Fiske unfolds. (..) There are dozens of interesting and fun details and side stories, I keep discovering new things after my third reading. (…) Lars Fiske proves once again that comics can be just as serious, informative and educational as professorial, biographical interpretations.’
Numer

‘One of this year’s best Norwegian comic releases … Fiske has absolute control over every square millimeter of this publication. (…) Fiske is in direct dialogue with Schwitters’ own language and emulates his aesthetics in both page-compositions and color schemes, and at the same time Fiske’s own stye is dominant.’ – Klassekampen