A SHORT HISTORY OF COLLAGE Highlighting a Few Pivotal Artists By Martha Rucker

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1 A SHORT HISTORY OF COLLAGE Highlighting a Few Pivotal Artists By Martha Rucker What is Collage? Collage is a technique of pasting materials such as newspaper clippings, fur, wall paper, package labels, or dozens of other possible materials onto paintings, drawings, prints, even sculpture. This technique has been around for a very long time. Cavemen may have used it by adding ribbons or slivers of grass or fur to images such as mammoths drawn on a rock wall. Fast forward to more recent times and we find school children creating collages, scrap bookers and artists using this technique. All of these examples of collage making have taken place for centuries, if not millennia. Among artists throughout the ages and across the continents, collages have been used to enhance the texture of their offerings, to emphasize points of reference and to create pleasure. Collage in Cubism and Futurism In Europe collage reemerged as an important component of 20th century art. It came into the focus of the art world, often employing the "object trouve", or the "found object", and fixing these objects on a two-dimensional surface. In 1912, Pablo Picasso ( ) the great Spanish painter attached a piece of oilcloth with a caning pattern to an oval shaped painting Still Life with Chair Caning. Still Life with Chair Caning - Picasso 1

2 The modern day trend to employ collage had begun. Soon after, Picasso s studio mate, Georges Braque ( ) created Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass. in During that period their work seems similar and this piece was highlighted with paper collage including pieces of wallpaper, sheet music and newspaper clippings. Both Picasso and Braque wanted to disconnect color from form. Guitar and Sheet Music on Table - Braque One resource credited Braque with Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass but further research showed all pieces with that title were credited to Picasso. Possibly, that was because they were studio mates for a time. In 1918 Georges Braque is credited with Guitar and Sheet Music on Table The use of collage by Picasso and Braque was closely related to their experimentation with another new art form: Cubism. We can term Cubism as a way to transform a two dimensional space into a three dimensional one. During the Dada movement, Hannah Höch (German, ) glued bits of photographs from magazines and advertising in such works as Cut with a Kitchen Knife, ( ). Fellow 2

3 Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (German, ) also glued bits of paper he found in newspapers, advertisements and other discarded matter beginning in He called his collages assemblages. Cut with a Kitchen Knife - Höch Although modern collage as an art form was born in France, it was by no means ignored by artists elsewhere. The influence of Picasso and Braque spread beyond borders and beyond Cubist painters. Other artists had different reasons for employing collage. Juan Gris (Spanish ) was a perfectionist about the elements he used - making sure, for example, that the wood grain he added suited the subject he was illustrating Ferdinand Leger (French ) first used collage during World War I when he couldn t find paper at the front and produced a work of art using cartridge boxes. Henry Matisse (French ) was bedridden and unable to paint during his final four years. So he turned to colored paper cutouts, creating a joyous universe of individual art works as well as book covers and textiles. Among artists throughout the ages and across the continents, collages have been used to enhance the texture of their offerings, to emphasize points of reference and to create pleasure. We see it in Japanese poetry scrolls, in Russian icons, and in Medieval Europe gold leaf overlays were often 3

4 added to enhance the artistic value as well as monetary worth of presentations. We also see examples of collage in tribal and aboriginal art. Modern Storytellers: Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold The work of these three African-American artists Romare Bearden ( ), Jacob Lawrence ( ), and Faith Ringgold (born 1930) speaks to the enduring power of the narrative impulse, and to its endless possibilities for reinvention. All three grew up or trained or lived at various points in their lives in Harlem, and participated in the community in important ways. The subjects these artists explore have incredible range, from the heroic to the mundane. Bearden explored numerous subjects in his work. The core investigates the often-marvelous quality of the mundane, whether the narratives are set in urban environments (such as Harlem or Pittsburgh) or rural enclaves (such as Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, or the Caribbean Islands). Sharing an equally acute social conscience, Ringgold explores feminism, race relations (both in the United States and in Europe), and family in her narratives. Both Lawrence and Bearden came of age just after the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Patchwork Quilt Bearden Self Portrait Lawrence 4

5 A-Rise - Ringgold For Bearden, Lawrence, and Ringgold, the formal structure carries the story: it is never secondary. These modern storytellers have realized their signature styles through nontraditional media, and all three artists use imagery that is deliberately naive in style. Collage is the most democratic art medium of all, and it is very user friendly. Materials are common and available to everyone purchased, found, recycled or from numerous other sources. RESOURCES: WorldandI.com - Collage 's Short History - Fred Stern - 12 / 2008 (This article originally appeared under the title "A Short History of Collage".) The University of Chicago -Theories of Media - Collage - Emily Bell Winter 2007 About.com - Art History Definition: Collage from Beth Gersh-Nesic The Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Stella Paul Department of Education Paul, Stella. "Modern Storytellers: Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (October 2004) Nancy Egol Nikkai Stuff That Sticks - A Brief History of Collage - October 2010 Other The Art of Collage - NANCY EGOL NIKKAL's Views on Art, Artists & the Fine Art of Collage Fine collage Art by John Williams johnmwilliamsfineart.com/ - John Williams Fine Art - portraits and landscapes 5