Kurt Schwitters: Kurt Schwitters. Le chaos-monde. 1918-1948

The exhibition "Kurt Schwitters. Le chaos-monde. 1918–1948" is a major retrospective of an artist whose practice developed across Dada, Constructivism and the German abstract scene. Bringing together more than 300 works and documents—including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, collages, drawings, notebooks, photographs, books and archival material—it explores the formal and conceptual range of his practice.

Through collaborations with Dada and Constructivist artists, Schwitters developed his own artistic movement, Merz, and became an important figure in the development of geometric abstraction, participating in several landmark exhibitions in Paris during the interwar period. He incorporated discarded and everyday materials into his works, transforming them into new compositions, and developed an organic architectural environment within his home known as the Merzbau. He also extended the principles of collage into poetry, notably through the Ursonate, a composition based on vocal sounds. His multidisciplinary practice encompassed publications, typography, assemblage and sculpture, reflecting an approach in which art and everyday life were closely interconnected. The exhibition also highlights connections between Schwitters’s work and Picasso’s, particularly in their approaches to experimentation, assemblage and the transformation of everyday materials.