Merz Picture 32 A. The Cherry Picture (Merzbild 32 A. Das Kirschbild)

Kurt Schwitters · 1921

You're looking at the Merz Picture 32 A, the Cherry Picture, made by Kurt Schwitters in nineteen twenty-one from cut and pasted paper, cloth, wood, metal, cork, oil, pencil and ink. Schwitters called all his work Merz, a syllable he cut out of the word Kommerzbank. He built it from what the street threw away.

Medium Cut-and-pasted colored and printed paper, cloth, wood, metal, cork, oil, pencil, and ink on board · Dimensions 36 1/8 x 27 3/4" (91.8 x 70.5 cm) · Credit Mr. and Mrs. A. Atwater Kent, Jr. Fund

Hanging beside it in Gallery 408: Canyon, Flag

Works like this one elsewhere in the museum: Notes 4 (C. I. A. Brand Bananas), The Conjur Woman, Carolina Blue, L'Abbatoire No. VI (The Slaughterhouse No. VI), Give us this day / our daily bread (Unser täglich Brot / gieb uns heute) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser), Great Indian Bazaar