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| Romare Bearden, Black Madona and Child, 1969 |
Collage (From the French: coller, to glue) is a technique of making art from scraps and other bits of miscellaneous materials. A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and / or other found objects. The assemblage of materials are then glued to a piece of paper or canvas...
EARLY BEGINNINGS:
The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.
The use of collage, wasn't used by many people until the 10th century in Japan, when calligraphers began to apply glued paper, using texts on surfaces, when writing their poems.[3]
The technique of collage appeared again in medieval Europe during the 13th century, and gold leaf panels started to be applied in Gothic cathedrals around the 15th and 16th centuries. Gemstones and other precious metals were applied to religious images, icons, and also, to coats of arms.[3] And, perhaps most notably, in the 19th century, collage methods were used among hobbyists for memorabilia (e.g. applied to photo albums) and books, much like the craft of scrap-booking that is popular today.
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| Picasso early collage work... |
According to the Guggenheim Museum's online art glossary, collage is an artistic concept associated with the beginnings of modernism, and entails much more than the idea of gluing something onto something else. The glued-on patches which Braque and Picasso added to their canvases offered a new perspective on painting when the patches "collided with the surface plane of the painting."[5] In this perspective, collage was part of a methodical reexamination of the relation between painting and sculpture, and these new works "gave each medium some of the characteristics of the other," according to the Guggenheim essay. Furthermore, these chopped-up bits of newspaper introduced fragments of externally referenced meaning into the collision: "References to current events, such as the war in the Balkans, and to popular culture enriched the content of their art." This juxtaposition of signifiers, "at once serious and tongue-in-cheek," was fundamental to the inspiration behind collage: "Emphasizing concept and process over end product, collage has brought the incongruous into meaningful congress with the ordinary."
COLLAGE AND MODERNISM
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| Kurt Schwitters, Das Undbild, 1919, |
Despite the pre-twentieth-century use of collage-like application techniques, some art
authorities argue that collage, properly speaking, did not emerge until after 1900, in conjunction with the early stages of modernism.
authorities argue that collage, properly speaking, did not emerge until after 1900, in conjunction with the early stages of modernism.
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| Henri Matisse, Blue Nude II, 1952, gouache découpée, |
Today, collage work is applied to many different types of mediums (materials) in the visual arts including painting, decoupage (the process of gluing images onto objects for decoration), wood working, and photomontage (bits of photographs glued together to make a single composition). In our media driven society digital collage and eCollage involve the use computer tools to create images. The idea of borrowing pieces of many works of original art to create a new and uniquely separate work of art is most noted in the audio visual. However collage is also employed by musicians to "sample" parts of songs or film to create a fresh new work.
ABOUT OUR CLASS PROCESS
For the purposes of this course, the most important thing to remember about collage is that you are a searcher and a borrower. You will be hunting for bits and pieces of images to capture the voice of your own personal story (narrative). Tapping in on your emotions, and memories, your task is to take inspiration from the images you find that will address a personalized vision of the assignments for this course.
One of the most helpful techniques for this process is to keep an image bank. Meaning, never throw away image away from one assignment to the next. Rather, keep them in plastic sleeves that allow you to look through easily as you mine memories of the past. Keeping a image bank, that is embellished with personal items from home will be rewarded in the form of unique and interesting collages.
TYPES OF COLLAGE:
Finally, making 2-D collages (which will constitute the bulk of our work) can take on several forms. Below are examples to help you determine which kind of collage is best suited for the story you want to tell in your collage. We will survey these forms of collage and others during the process of the semester.
TYPES OF COLLAGE DEFINED:
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| Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #20, mixed media, collage, 1962, |
1. NARRATIVE:
USING DIFFERENT IMAGES GLUED TOGETHER TO CREATE A STORY OR MOOD: these artists used clipped photos and colored Paper to create space, feelings, events, ideas… **Narrative Collage (can also incorporate words)
Henri Matisse "The Snail
2. NON-OBJECTIVE / OBJECTIVE ABSTRACT
USING COLLAGE TO CREATE ABSTRACT DESIGN: In Henri Matisse's "The Snail", the artist Clipped sheets of colored paper to create MOVEMENT, SPACE, And COMPOSITION – IN A NON-OBJECT (meaning not meant to look like anything) design.
Untitled by Derek Gores (??)
3. PORTRAIT
COLLAGE USING IMAGES TO EXPRESS SHAPE = or PORTRAIT COLLAGE: Each image here has used cut outs to define a specific shape
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| Albert Oehlen |
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| Source unknown... |
4. JOURNAL / WORD INSPIRED
COLLAGE USING WORDS TO JOURNAL AND EXPRESS FEELINGS:
Using images or words, in order to express their attitudes toward aging, This student made a collage, which spells out words that begin
RESOURCES FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Most of this article was copied from Wikipedia "Collage"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage
3. Leland, Nita; Virginia Lee Williams (September 1994). "One". Creative Collage Techniques. North Light Books. p. 7. ISBN 0-89134-563-9.
Additional images borrowed from:
Its amazing to see how you can collage from almost anything and create a master piece or tell a story in your work with just scraps of paper or samples of pictures from newspapers, magazines, personal photos, etc.
ReplyDeleteIts mind blowing that making a collage is much more than just cutting up papers. Reading this blog gave me the knowledge that its much deeper than what I thought. Collages goes all the way to artist like Picasso. I never knew that this art from was taken serious and not just a project we do in grade school.
ReplyDeleteI love how you can make collages from whatever you want! It was interesting to read this blog because there were things I didn't know before, such as how far collages go in history. Collage making dates all the way back to artists like Picaso. I allso learned I am a searcher and borrower. From the blog that means I will be seeking new images and combining them to make my own. From these collages I shall tell my own story. I didn't believe this class was going to be this interesting, but now that I know I will make the best of the class to create the best collages I can make possible.
ReplyDeleteIt's so beautiful how creative minds can put any material together and it comes out as a master piece . yeah some look like it's doesn't match the title, just like the snail . But that's the Beauty of it , art has no rules . The fact that this form of art is famous and not just a project in fifth grade is amazing. - Melissa Aguilar , feb 11,2015
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how simple things can come together to make something beautiful. Scraps of garbage and misused items are beautiful within themselves. It takes a distinctive eye to see it. Everyone has this eye of art. It juat has to be brought out of that person. Before taking collage 101, art to me seemed confusing. Now, its so much more.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how simple things can come together to make something beautiful. Scraps of garbage and misused items are beautiful within themselves. It takes a distinctive eye to see it. Everyone has this eye of art. It juat has to be brought out of that person. Before taking collage 101, art to me seemed confusing. Now, its so much more.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that collages can be done with anything and be so beautiful. I like collages because anybody can create one, even if your not the most artistic person. Collages are so unique to me because there's so much behind them that I didn't even know.
ReplyDeleteI find is interesting that one can create a collage from almost anything. Its basically using scraps of paper, pictures from newspapers, magazines, and photos to tell a story. Before taking this class i didn't know much about collages. My favorite types of collages are Narrative and portraits because they tell a story and its a great way to express your self through art.
ReplyDelete