Knud Merrild (1894-1954) was born in Denmark where he studied art and design. In 1921, determined to make his life as an artist, Merrild emigrated to the United States, living briefly in New York, before heading west towards California. Together with another Danish artist, Merrild drove across the country in an old Ford stopping in Santa Fe with a letter of introduction to the artist Walter Ufer, who in turn introduced the pair to other resident artists and writers including D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda. The Lawrences took a liking to the young Danish artists and convinced them remain in New Mexico for the winter, the foursome moving into adjacent cabins in a remote location 17 miles outside Taos. During the winter of 1922-23, not only did Merrild create a body of work relating to New Mexico, but he also absorbed from Lawrence the valuable lesson that he only produce work which was true to himself. Merrild later wrote a book about his experiences with D. H. Lawrence, "A Poet and Two Painters" which was first published in 1939, and for which Merrild received widespread acclaim.

In 1923, Merrild settled in Los Angeles, where for the next thirty years, he created his most significant work, an output of several hundred works in a range of styles. By the early 1930s, he was regularly receiving one-man exhibitions and was selling works to some of the most progressive collectors in Los Angeles, most notably Galka Scheyer, Walter Arensberg, Man Ray, Lorser Feitelson, Clifford Odets, Henry Miller and Aldous Huxley. Beyond collecting his work, several prominent artists, Henry Miller, Man Ray and Lorser Feitelson, also wrote about Merrild. Man Ray also shot two superb photographic portraits of the Merrild.

Merrild's earliest works created in Los Angeles were cubist inspired paintings and watercolors. However, by the early 1930s, Merrild was experimenting with different materials in an effort to create works which would be three-dimensional. He built constructions out of wood and incorporated into them common house-building materials like wire, roofing paper, wallpaper and glass. He added texture to his watercolors by applying gesso to paper before painting. In adding depth to his pictures, Merrild sought to involve the effects of light and shadow, giving his works a range of appearances, depending upon the intensity of light present. These 1930s works have been mostly described as surrealist and have been included in recent survey exhibitions dealing with Surrealism in United States.

In 1942, Merrild developed his technique of painting which called "flux", a process by which he alternatively poured, dripped or expelled paint from a dispenser onto a fluid surface. According to Merrild, "A natural consequence of the process is that orthodox tools are of little use, being replaced by gravitation. The paint is expelled at various distances, from zero to several feet above the surface-painting by remote control. The pattern created differs according to the velocity or gravitational force, and to the density or fluidity of the paint. The impact of the expelled paint with the fluid surface creates fissions or explosive eruptions, more or less violent, and the painting is set in motion in four dimensions. Mutations follow, lasting from seconds to several hours. When in motion, incessant mutations of color and form ensue, until arrested in a metaphor of its own Flux. Left alone, it becomes an automatic creation by natural law, a kinetic painting of the abstract." In some cases, the resulting works are entirely abstract and in others concrete images are recognizable. The titles which Merrild chose reveal what he saw in them: Plexiform Flux; Flying Hobby Horse; Battlefield Flowers; Shawl of Petrified Fragrance; Littoral Flux; Before The Beginning There Was No Word; Substrata Of Behavior; Littoral Flux; and Aroma Of Birth. Merrild's flux paintings received critical acclaim when they were exhibited around the country.

This body of work, produced between 1942 and 1951, was the artist's final output. In 1952, Merrild suffered a heart attack, and soon thereafter returned to native Denmark seeking less expensive medical care. He did not produce any more work in Denmark and died there in 1954. A major retrospective of Merrild's work was mounted at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1965.