About
Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University is one of Britain's most significant university art galleries, holding an exceptional collection of modern and contemporary art and containing the only surviving complete Merz environment by the pioneering Dada and Merz artist Kurt Schwitters — one of the most important works of 20th-century art in existence.
The gallery was founded in 1925 by Richard George Hatton, the first professor of fine art at Armstrong College (now Newcastle University), and has since built a collection of remarkable depth and quality. The permanent collection covers European and British art from the late 19th century to the present, with particular strengths in early 20th-century modernism, British postwar painting, and contemporary works by artists associated with the university and the north-east region.
The Kurt Schwitters Merzbarn is the gallery's most significant holding — a unique fragment of the artist's final Merz environment, created in a barn at Cylinders Farm, Elterwater in the Lake District between 1947 and Schwitters's death in 1948. The Merzbarn — named by analogy with Schwitters's earlier destroyed Merzbau in Hanover — was built by the artist during his final years as a refugee in England, incorporating collaged found objects, plaster reliefs, and mixed media constructions into the barn's interior. After the barn fell into disrepair, the surviving wall section was rescued and brought to the Hatton Gallery in 1965, where it is now preserved and displayed as a work of extraordinary art historical importance.
Beyond the Merzbarn, the Hatton presents an ambitious programme of temporary exhibitions featuring significant contemporary artists, alongside educational programmes that connect the gallery's activities to the research and teaching of Newcastle University's fine art department. The gallery is free and open to the public, making world-class art accessible to the people of the North East.
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Highlights
The Kurt Schwitters Merzbarn
The Hatton Gallery's greatest treasure is the wall section from Kurt Schwitters's Merzbarn — the only surviving complete Merz environment by this seminal 20th-century artist and one of the most significant works of European avant-garde art preserved in Britain. Created in a Cumbrian barn during the last year of Schwitters's life (1947–48), the work is a complex collage of found objects, plaster reliefs, and mixed media constructions embodying his lifelong Merz philosophy — transforming the world through art made from its discarded materials.
Acquired by the Hatton in 1965, it is a work of genuine world significance on permanent display in Newcastle.
Kurt Schwitters — Life and Merz Philosophy
The gallery's interpretation of the Merzbarn places it in the context of Schwitters's extraordinary life — a story of artistic revolution, exile, and creative persistence.
Born in Hanover in 1887, he developed his unique Merz aesthetic (named from a syllable cut from the word Kommerz) as a counter-Dada practice seeking beauty and meaning in the cast-off materials of modern life. Forced to flee Nazi Germany in 1937, he eventually settled in England's Lake District, where he created the Merzbarn during his final years as a refugee, continuing his artistic vision with undiminished ambition until his death.
Permanent Modern and Contemporary Art Collection
Beyond the Merzbarn, the Hatton holds a distinguished permanent collection assembled over a century of collecting, with particular strengths in early 20th-century European modernism, British postwar painting, and works by artists associated with Newcastle's fine art community. The collection is displayed in rotating selections that explore its breadth and make connections across periods and movements, reflecting Newcastle University's long commitment to fine art education and the cultural life of the North East region.
New and recently acquired works sit alongside the established collection in a programme of consistent scholarly quality.
Ambitious Temporary Exhibition Programme
The gallery maintains a dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions presenting significant contemporary artists in carefully curated shows that often explore the relationship between contemporary practice and themes raised by the permanent collection.
Shows have included major solo and group exhibitions featuring artists of national and international reputation, and the Hatton has developed a particular reputation for conceptually rigorous programming that rewards sustained engagement. The university context gives the gallery freedom to take creative risks that purely commercial or local authority galleries cannot easily afford.
Collections
The Kurt Schwitters Merzbarn
The only surviving complete Merz environment by Kurt Schwitters — one of the most important works of 20th-century art, created in a Cumbrian barn in 1947–48 and acquired by the Hatton in 1965. A unique example of avant-garde assemblage art.
Permanent Collection — Modern and Contemporary Art
Works from the gallery's permanent collection spanning early 20th-century modernism through contemporary British practice, displayed in rotating selections that make connections across periods and movements.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.
Nearby Museums (5 within 6 miles)
North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers
Industrial Heritage
Newcastle upon Tyne — ~10 min walk (0.5 mi)