In praise of ... Kurt Schwitters

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/28/in-praise-of-kurt-schwitters

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Nowadays, it seems, everyone knows the art of Kurt Schwitters. The German dadaist is honoured everywhere as one of the key modernists. His aesthetic principle of "the combination for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials" has become orthodoxy and can be followed directly to the work of Damien Hirst. Even the past neglect of Schwitters is now part of his myth. Schwitters' Merzbarn in the Lake District is as celebrated today as it was neglected for much of the half century following his death in 1948. So there is special pleasure in visiting the Schwitters in Britain exhibition at Tate Britain and discovering that, in among the now well-known Merz theory and the collages, there is, of all unexpected things, a fine portraitist. In his exile from Germany, Schwitters painted portraits for the most practical of reasons, to earn an income. But these fine pieces are a reminder that, as well as using it all, Schwitters could also do it all.