Kurt Schwitters Creator of Merz, Ambleside, Cumbria - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

There is scarcely an artist working with materials other than paint who does not refer to Schwitters in some way. In his bold and wide-ranging experiments he can be seen as the grandfather of Pop Art, Happenings, Concept Art, Fluxus, multimedia art and post-modernism.

Kurt Schwitters fled from Germany to Norway to then escape to England. And after a short internment, left London to live near Ambleside in the Lake District.

Was a student at the Dresden Academy of Art. After exhibiting at Sturm Gallery in Berlin, he began making assemblages from scraps of refuse, including one he called the Merz picture. Subsequently he referred to all his work as Merz.

Schwitters was offered a stone barn near Little Langdale, Cumbria, to create his work on its walls. At his death he had completed only one wall, now to be found in Newcastle University, England. Sadly, no other of Schwitters extraordinary Merzbau constructions have survived. See links

Headstone is made of local green slate. Follow breaks behind other rows of headstones, to get to BACK of headstone, as headstones are laid out in rows 4 deep.

There is an annual event in Ambleside and Langdale to celebrate his life and work. In 2006, the MERZ barn and land around it, was purchased with a view to creating a tribute to Schwitters. Read story in local paper. (visit link)
Located on the Cylinders estate, Elterwater.

Project : Kurt Schwitters in England
Plans to keep legacy of his work topical
(visit link)

Wikipedia entry (visit link)

biography (visit link)

Kurt Schwitters Poems (visit link)

Book published in 2006 by local author Robin Martakies (visit link)

Will need a GPSr to find this one, all headstones look the same!

Description: 20 th Century's greatest master of collage. Not a direct participant in Dada activities, he employed Dada ideas in his work, such as his Merz works — art pieces built up of found objects. Date of birth: 06/20/1887 Date of death: 01/08/1948 Area of notoriety: Art Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: daylight Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   04/16/2010 bill&ben visited it