Cherry Picture (1921) by Kurt Schwitters

Cherry Picture - Kurt Schwitters - 1921

Artwork Information

TitleCherry Picture
ArtistKurt Schwitters
Date1921
Mediumcollage,gouache,objet trouve,cardboard,wood
Dimensions36 1/8 x 27 3/4 in.
Art MovementDada
Current LocationMuseum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, US
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About Cherry Picture

Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Picture 32A, also known as The Cherry Picture, is a Dada collage created in 1921. The artwork is classified as a Figurative style and depicts cherry fruits using scraps and objects collected from the streets of Hanover, Germany. Using cut-and-pasted colored and printed paper, cloth, wood, metal, cork, oil, pencil and ink on board mediums together with typography and sound poetry was characteristic of Schwitters’ work.

Schwitter’s Merz Pictures were collages that incorporated found objects or “everyday detritus,” which he believed to be valuable art materials. In The Cherry Picture specifically, it is speculated that the printed paper used may have been from the Molling commercial printing plant in Hanover. The artwork was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City in the United States.

Schwitters’ work aimed to expose the arbitrariness of established values by treating discarded materials as valuable art materials. His Merz Pictures sought to merge traditional art forms with non-traditional ones to create a total world view called the “Merz total world view.” Alongside Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray among other Dada artists during his time period; Schwitters has had an indelible influence on contemporary art making today.

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