Kurt Schwitters "i-Drawing" (1920)

i-Drawing 1920

Kurt Schwitters' famous piece the 'i-Drawing', dated 1920. It is very dense and has high colour contrast. At first glance the piece looks very cluttered and jumbled, but in actual fact the piece is extremely constructed. The complex layout seems, in my opinion, to create an image of a fence or bars. This could be an expression of Kurt Schwitters feelings (as a Dadaist) towards the amount of censorship on freedom of speech. The pictures and newspaper prints seem to represent knowledge, creativity and freedom of speech. The lines and bars represent the censorship.

This piece seems more constructed the more you look at it. It has a rhythmical pattern creating consistency throughout the piece. The typographic values create a very "gothic". The type layout is very archaic and unlike most typography work you see. The colours used are very interesting. The dull and dark effect they produce really sets the mood for the whole piece. Creating a dark style that draws in the viewer.

This work is still used in modern day design. It is massively used by Graphic Designer Neville Brody.

 

Above you can see Neville Brody's poster design for "F Code, Fuse 6, Font shop International 1993" compared to the "i-Drawing" you can see a clear influence from the Dada style. The repetative, almost rhythmical pattern of type, combined with a grungey dark background image. The Contrasting colours look very similar to the Kurt Schwitters "i-Drawing" combining the various background colours with a strongly contrasted bold colour.

This method of consistency was later applied to other Artistic styles such as poetry, or "i-Poems" which he composed entirely from text fragments he sourced himself.

In 1923, Schwitters released the second issue of his magazine "MERZ".

MERZ magazine #2 (i-number) 1923

There have been many successful artists that have been influenced by the Dada Movement, such as; Jamie Reid, Theo Van Doesburg. Their styles have a clear representative style of the Dada movement.