Knud Merrild

Knud Merrild Nielsen (10 May 1894 – 31 December 1954) was a Danish painter, sculptor and ceramicist.

Knud Merrild
Born	(1894-05-10)10 May 1894 Ødum, Denmark
Died	31 December 1954(1954-12-31) (aged 60) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Occupation	Painter

Life

Merrild was born in Selling, Ødum parish, in Favrskov Municipality. He worked in ceramics with the potter G. A. Eifrig at the Københavns Lervarefabrik in Valby. He was part of the circle around the avant-garde art magazine Klingen and was a friend of Vilhelm Lundstrøm. In 1921 he emigrated to the United States, where he lived in many different places, including with D.H. Lawrence in Taos, New Mexico, from 1922 to 1923, and was also a friend of the American writer Henry Miller. He later wrote about both of them. Merrild eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1927, where he remained until he returned to Denmark in 1954. He died in Copenhagen in the same year.

He submitted work for the art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Written works

• A Poet and Two Painters: a Memoir of D.H. Lawrence, George Routledge, London, 1938
• With D.H. Lawrence in New Mexico. A Memoir of D.H. Lawrence, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1964 (reissue of the 1938 book)
• All the Animals in the Zoo - about Henry Miller, Village Press 1973 (originally published in California in 1945 as part of wider collection of artists' reminiscences about Miller)

Further reading

• En Kunstner er dod, Ernst Mentze, Beringske tidende 6 Jan 1955
• Henry Miller, 1979: Knud Merrild - A Holiday in Paint, Norwood Editions
• En maler og to forfattere: Knud Merrild - om D.H. Lawrence og Henry Miller, John T. Lauridsen I, Magasin fra Det kongelige Bibliotek, Aarg. 30, nr. 1 (2017)
• Knud Merrild 1894-1954, Paintings, Constructions, Collages, Watercolors and Drawings. Lytton Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. November 26-December 26, 1965; Jules Langsner; William Osmun
• Turning the Tide: Early Los Angeles Modernists, 1920-1956, exhibition catalogue, Karlstrom, Paul J., and Ehrlich, Susan; curated by Susan Ehrlich and Barry M. Heisler; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, 1990, ISBN 0899510760
• Knud Merrild - Works from the 1930s and 1940s, 27 Sep-16 Nov 1991, exhibition catalogue with essay by Victoria Dailey, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles
• Knud Merrild: State of Flux, exhibition catalogue, by Victoria Dailey with intro by Edward Ruscha; Beverly Hills: Steve Turner Gallery,
• Knud Merrild, catalogue of exhibition 3 Nov to 20 Dec 2008, ed. Marshall N Price, Valerie Carbery Gallery, Chicago ISBN 9780981597324
• LA's Early Moderns: Art, Architecture, Photography by Victoria Dailey Natalie Shivers Michael Dawson, Balcony Press, 2003

External links

• Invaluable.com: selection of Merrild's works, with images