On Thu, 04 Nov 1999 16:17:41 GMT, you wrote:
>>> The reading will take place beside Kurt Schwitters' last MerzBarn,
>>> which holds pride of place in the Hatton. Built in Little Langdale in
>>> 1947 (the year before his death) it was moved the 120 odd miles in
>>> 1965 by Richard Hamilton (at that time Prof. of the Fine Art Dept) and
>>> colleagues - "it is gay, it is vital, it is Schwitters".
>
>and is it not controversial - i seem to remember a lot of fuss about the
>work and its relocation? is that still an issue?
- I guess it's old enough now for one to be able to like it or dislike
it as one pleases - the Hatton has recently done a fine job of
re-presenting it (rejigging the space around it) so it looks great
(and they had a nice Kurt Schwitters show too). At the time (shortly
before I appearanced in the NorthEast) I'm told the whole thing was
generally snuffled at - the purists saying it's great art; it shd be
left to fall apart where it was, and the philistines (this was the era
of Buntings "What the Chairman told Tom") saying by 'eck what a right
load of bloody nonsense, and who can blame them. Schwitters was in
just that been-dead-a-bit-but-not-long-enough stage which is fatal for
reputations...
I note that Schwitters originally intended the finished barn to be a
teashop: perhaps we can enact this in some way by serving tea and
sandwiches at Mike Heller's lunchtime reading... should we warn him?
Nah...
RC
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