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| Collage (art) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Collage |
| Type | Visual art |
| Origin | Early 20th century |
| Notable | Pablo Picasso; Georges Braque; Hannah Höch |
Collage (art) is an artistic technique that assembles disparate elements—such as paper, photographs, fabric, found objects, and printed matter—into a unified composition. Emerging prominently in the early 20th century, the method intersects with movements and figures across Paris, Berlin, New York City, London, and Moscow, and has been adopted by practitioners from Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque to Hannah Höch and Joseph Cornell. Collage functions both as a formal strategy and as a critical gesture that recontextualizes existing imagery and material from mass culture, political events, and personal archives.
Collage is defined by the physical act of affixing heterogeneous materials onto a support, often combining painted surfaces with cut or torn elements sourced from Parisian newspapers, Le Figaro, Vogue (magazine), or printed ephemera associated with figures like Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, and Man Ray. Techniques include torn-edge assemblage used by Kurt Schwitters, pasted-paper montages practiced by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, and photomontage popularized by Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, and El Lissitzky. Secondary techniques—such as découpage, collage painting, assemblage sculpture, and décollage—draw connections to practitioners in New York School circles like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Rauschenberg Foundation associates.
Antecedents of collage appear in Chinan and Japann decorative traditions, in decoupage tied to Venicen craft, and in illustrated broadsides circulated during events like the French Revolution. The modern movement coalesced during the 1910s in Montparnasse and Montmartre with works by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque that incorporated newspaper clippings and wallpaper, influenced by encounters with Cubism and artists from Henri Matisse's circles. Concurrently, Dadaists in Zurich and Berlin—including Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, and John Heartfield—deployed photomontage against wartime politics and organizations such as Spartacus League. In Moscow, Constructivists like El Lissitzky adapted collage methods for propaganda and design in the wake of the October Revolution. Mid-century developments in New York City saw collage inform Abstract Expressionism adjacencies via artists linked to Alfred Stieglitz, Peggy Guggenheim, and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art.
Traditional materials include sheet music connected to performances at Le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, advertisements from periodicals like Harper's Bazaar, postage stamps from postal systems such as United States Postal Service, tickets to venues like Carnegie Hall, and industrial detritus tied to urban centers such as Detroit and Manchester. Tools range from adhesive varieties produced by companies associated with early 20th‑century manufacturing to cutting implements similar to those used at Bauhaus workshops. Methods prioritize juxtaposition—linking elements from Soviet poster design, Hollywood star portraits, and commercial signage—to produce semantic tension; practitioners have mounted collage on supports from linen stretched like works shown at Tate Modern to found wooden panels displayed in venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Genres of collage reflect broad aesthetic and political tendencies: Cubist papier collé of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque; Dada and photomontage by Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, and John Heartfield; Surrealist assemblages associated with Max Ernst, André Breton, and Salvador Dalí; Neo-Dada and combine paintings by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns; Pop collages linked to Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, and Roy Lichtenstein; feminist collage practices connected to Hannah Wilke, Miriam Schapiro, and Judy Chicago; and contemporary appropriation strategies used by Barbara Kruger, Shepard Fairey, and Wangechi Mutu. Regional scenes—from Mexico City's printmaking circles around Taller de Gráfica Popular to Tokyo's avant-garde collectives—have generated hybrid subgenres.
Key artists and movements include Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque for Cubist innovations; Dada figures like Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, and Hans Richter; Surrealism represented by Max Ernst, André Breton, and Man Ray; Constructivism with El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko; Kurt Schwitters and the Merz concept; Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and the New York School; Pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, and Roy Lichtenstein; feminist and activist collagists including Miriam Schapiro, Judy Chicago, and Barbara Kruger; and later practitioners across contemporary galleries and biennials from Venice Biennale participants to artists exhibited at the Serpentine Galleries and Guggenheim Museum.
Collage has influenced graphic design, advertising, poster art, and political communication in arenas tied to institutions like Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Weimar Republic cultural production, and Civil Rights Movement visual campaigns. Critics and theorists—including voices associated with Surrealism and later academic circles at universities such as Columbia University and University of Oxford—have debated collage's role in authorship, originality, and copyright disputes involving publishers like Condé Nast and galleries such as Gagosian Gallery. Debates also engage museums like the Museum of Modern Art, activists from movements like Black Lives Matter, and curators organizing exhibitions at venues including the Tate Modern.
Contemporary collage spans analog assemblage by artists shown at MoMA PS1 and digital practices distributed via platforms linked to Instagram, Behance, and creative communities around institutions like Rhizome. Digital collage techniques employ software developed by companies such as Adobe Systems and collaborative platforms used by collectives associated with festivals like SXSW and Frieze Art Fair. Practitioners combine scanned archival materials from repositories like the Library of Congress with generative processes referencing exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery and online activism rooted in networks like Anonymous. Curators and educators at schools including Royal College of Art, Yale School of Art, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago continue to adapt collage methodologies for contemporary pedagogy and practice.
Category:Visual arts