Lust Murder Box No. 2 is one of a series of wooden boxes Schwitters designed and had constructed by Albert Schulze, a cabinet maker and master of the wood mosaic technique called intarsia. The wood veneer surface of the box resembles a puzzle and its interlocking abstract shapes recall Schwitters’ collage forms of the 1920s. The box was created in response Germany’s notorious sexual predator, Fritz Haarmann. Referred to as “The Vampire of Hanover,” Harrmann was convicted in 1925 of committing 24 murders, but it was believed that he killed more than 50 men. During the trial Harrmann confessed to numerous gruesome activities. While Lust Murder Box No. 2 on display here is empty, Schwitters filled some of the boxes in this series with doll parts in reference to the victims.
Details
- Artist Name: Kurt Schwitters (German, 1887-1948)
- Title: Lust Murder Box No. 2
- Date: 1920-1922
- Medium: Inlaid exotic wood box (crafted by Albert Schulze, Hanover)
- Dimensions: 2-1/8 x 5 x 3-3/4 in. (5.4 x 12.7 x 9.5 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Kate Steinitz
- Accession Number: P.1969.087
- Copyright: © 2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
Dr. Ernst Steinitz, to;
Kate Steinitz, Gift 1969 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1969-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
[on loan]
- Hannover, Galerie von Garvens, 1920 to 1920
[on loan]
- Hannover, Kestner Gesellschaft, 1920 to
[on loan]
- Los Angeles, Dwan Gallery, 1964-02-02 to 1964-02-29
Kate Steinitz Collection
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969-08-02 to 1969-09-21
Kurt Schwitters. MERZ - A Total Vision of the World
- Museum Jean Tinguely Basel, 2004-05-01 to 2004-08-22
Kurt Schwitters
- Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, 1962-04-15 to 1962-05-06
- Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1962-06-19 to 1962-07-20
- The Currier Gallery of Art, 1962-09-27 to 1962-10-18
- Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection, 1962-11-04 to 1962-11-25
- Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, 1963-01-07 to 1963-02-04
- J. B. Speed Art Museum, 1963-02-14 to 1963-03-07
Kurt Schwitters
- Dusseldorf, Stadtische Kunsthalle, 1971-01-12 to 1971-02-28
- Akademie der Künste (Berlin, Germany), 1971-03-12 to 1971-04-18
- Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, 1971-05-14 to 1971-07-18
- Kunsthalle Basel, 1971-07-31 to 1971-09-09
- Hamburg, Kunstverein, 1971-09-24 to 1971-11-21
Ferus
- New York, Gagosian Gallery, 2002-09-12 to 2002-10-19
Recent Acquisitions, 1969
- Pasadena Art Museum, 1969-11-24 to 1970-01-18
Works from the Pasadena Art Museum
- Vancouver Art Gallery, 1970-04-14 to 1970-05-10
46 N. Los Robles: A History of The Pasadena Art Museum
- USC Pacific Asia Museum, 2011-11-17 to 2012-04-08
Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre
- Norton Simon Museum, 2016-09-02 to 2017-01-16
Modernism in Miniature
- Norton Simon Museum, 2022-08-12 to 2023-01-09
From Europe to California: Galka Scheyer and the Avant-Garde
- Norton Simon Museum, 2003-05-16 to 2003-10-13
Lost but Found: Assemblage, Collage and Sculpture, 1920-2002
- Norton Simon Museum, 2004-11-05 to 2005-03-28
Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973
- Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31
- Kurt Schwitters: Catalogue raisonné (Vol. I, 1905-1922), 2000, Cat. #771
- Blum, Irving, Ferus, 2002, p. 110, 115
- Museum Jean Tinguely, Basel, Kurt Schwitters: Merz - a Total Vision of the World, 2004, Cat. 45 p.236
- Blum, Irving, Ferus (reprint), 2009, p. 110, 115
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