Merz Barn (as at November 2010)
  c. Michael St.Mark

Merz Barn Atmospheres – homage to Kurt Schwitters
c. Michael St.Mark 2010

Elterwater, Langdale Cumbria.

Intimate views into the Merz Barn interior in 2010 during the conservation project by Littoral to sustain and promote the location as an important international arts visitor centre/museum,  albeit sadly without its crowning jewel, the Merz Wall, that was formerly an integral part of the structure of the Barn itself ( the entire NW wall ) . The rusted window frame, opening handle, glass panes, sundry wooden blocks and certainly much of the Barn’s stonework is contemporary of the mid 19th century and of Schwitters’ time there,

( For information and history about Schwitters in England, please see the preceding post )

Local slate dressed and crated at the Cylinders estate, ready for transport to the Royal Academy (November 2010), that went to form the reconstruction of Merz Barn outside the very institution that ignored Schwitters’ work during the artist’s brief post-war stay in London.
Image c. Michael St.Mark / London Dada

” First they cold-shoulder the pioneering artist, then long after his demiise
come the heaps of false praise.”

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Update; June 2014

Kurt Schwitters – virtually ignored by the London art establishment of 1946; now the empty Merzbarn – that once housed his “last great work”, the Merz Wall – and its immediate surroundings are being preserved and re-energized by the Littoral Arts project to in future feature a museum and cultural centre to benefit local artists and the Cumbrian economy.

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UPDATE 2018;
Merz Barn Atmospheres II

UPDATE Summer 2018

Q & A interview with Michael St.Mark on the return of the Merz Wall from the Hatton gallery back to its artist-intended exhibition location at Elterwater, by the Kurt Schwitters UK newsletter editor and internationally-recognized KS authority Gwendolen Webster, that was published in the July 2018 issue.

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