Kurt Schwitters, analysis and rating of his value on the art market

If you own a work of art by or about Kurt Schwitters, and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will offer you their appraisal services. Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with a precise estimate of its current market value. Thereafter, if you wish to sell your work, we will guide you towards the best possible arrangement to obtain an optimal price.

Rating and value of works by Kurt Schwitters 

Inseparable from the Dada movement, Kurt Schwitters produced an exponential number of interdependent and eclectic works of art, including paintings, collages, typography, sculpture, assemblages and sound poetry. The art market is teeming with his works, which sometimes sell for as much as €300 to €15,527,280. In 2022, one of his collages entitled " Mz 255 dromedar " sold for €64 947 

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious 

Style and technique of an eccentric, maverick artist 

Kurt Schwitters mainly made collages from torn paper and salvaged scrap elements, brought back and glued together. He adds painted and drawn interventions. The aim of these interventions is to integrate the materials into the surface of the work. His creations no longer reflect reality in a mimetic way, but present an equivalent of the fragmented, broken reality at the end of the war.

Kurt Schwitters, poet of the Dada movement

Born in 1887, Kurt Schwitters came from a family of merchants. In 1908, he entered the Hanover School of Applied Arts. Declared unfit for combat service in 1917 (probably because he had pretended to be a scatterbrain), Schwitters was assigned as an industrial draughtsman in a metal factory. During this period, he ventured into the twists and turns of Expressionist and Cubist painting, and at the same time wrote poems in the tradition of German Romanticism. In Berlin, he fell in love with Herwarth Walden, the founder of the famous DerSturm newspaper, and in June 1918, Schwitters exhibited two abstract paintings at a group show organized by the gallery of the same name. He thus met the Dadaists and struck up a friendship with those to whom he devoted total admiration :  Raoul Hausmann and his companion Hannah Höch.

How Kurt Schwitters shaped his time 

Kurt Schwitters, paragon of the Dada hotbed in Hanover, founded his own artistic current, positioning himself as leader and sole member, under the strange name Merz, derived from the inscription "Kommerz- und Privatbank". In 1919, he published his manifesto in Walden's magazine and unveiled Merz works for the first time at Der Sturm gallery.

In 1923, the launch of Merz magazine propelled the artist to the forefront of the art scene. Devoted to an exceptional tour, entitled De Stijl-Dada, the first issue is brilliantly orchestrated by Theo Van Doesburg and Schwitters. The second issue was a revelation and an earthquake in the artistic community: the artist published the "Manifesto of Proletarian Art", which was also signed by such emblematic figures of the time as Franz Arp, Theo Van Doesburg and Tristan Tzara. In this manifesto, the artist insists on the need not to confine himself to the limits of the opposition between proletariat and bourgeoisie, but that art must influence integral culture, regardless of social categories.

While Dada publications had ceased to circulate in Germany and France, Merz magazine became a prosthetic extension of the movement not neglecting this legacy until 1932. The magazine established an indestructible link between Dada and constructivism and neo-platonism, as evidenced by its collaboration with El Lissitzky and the layout from which it drew its inspiration. At the same time, Schwitters debuted his magnum opus, the illustrious Merzbau, which invaded every nook and cranny of his Hanover mansion with sharp angles, sloping columns in which hideaways and grottoes could be found, where he concealed keepsake boxes for his friends.

The impact of Kurt Schwitters' protean and synergistic oeuvre is perceptible in a wide range of contemporary artistic creations. Arman's accumulations of objects, Claes Oldenburg's pop art sculptures or Tinguely's meta-matic machines remain bravura pieces that conceal Schwitters' undeniable imprint. The Fluxus movement also drew inspiration from his work.

How to recognize Kurt Schwitters' signature

Kurt Schwitters signs his works, at the bottom of the page when it is two-dimensional, with his full name in a fluid, almost calligraphic script.

How to appraise a work by Kurt Schwitters 

If you happen to own a work by or after Kurt Schwitters, ask without hesitation for a free appraisal via our form on our website. A member of Auctie's will contact you promptly with an estimate of the value of your work, and provide you with all the relevant information. If you are considering selling your work, you will also be accompanied by our specialists in order to benefit from alternatives for selling it at the best possible price.