History of Collage
Ron Hall’s Workshop Presentation for Mixed Media in December 2020
“Collage” comes from the French word, meaning to glue or stick together. Collage is, in fact, a technique utilized in the art world to create through the process of assembling different forms together to imagine something completely new.
When we think of collage, we usually think of cutting and gluing paper. However, collage is only limited by your imagination and how well your glue holds.
Collage can be created by utilizing a variety of mixed mediums along with – photographs, magazine and newspaper clippings, sheet music, book pages, product and packaging labels, just to name a few.
The term Papiercolle was coined by both George Barque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th Century, when collage became a distinct part of modern art. Although Braque and Picasso made collage famous and mainstream, these two well known Parisian artists were not the first to create within this art form.
So….let’s get in our art history time machines and go way back to the beginning. The first to create with collage were the Chinese, who created with this new art form after the invention of paper in China in 200 BC.
However, the use of collage as an art form did not really catch on and gain popularity until the 10th Century in Japan, when calligraphers began to apply glued paper using text on surfaces, when writing poems.
A little later on, the technique of collage appeared in medieval Europe during the 13th Century. Gold leaf panels started to be made for Gothic Cathedrals in the 15th and 16th Century.
In the 18th Century a 72-year old woman named Mary Delany started creating collage type art. Mary Delany was an English artist born in 1700. Delany utilized cut paper of contrasting colors and shades to create botanical art that she called decoupage – the art of gluing colored paper cutouts onto a surface in combination with special paint effects. At 72 years old, Mary Delany began creating over 900 works of paper mosaic art, that would later be known as collage.
Sadly, she has been overlooked due to her subject matter, her utilization of an untraditional art form, and - lets face it - the fact that she was a female artist. Check out the YouTube videos on Mary Delany. The one that is just under 10 minutes is both informative and, hopefully, inspiring.
Getting back in our time machines we find that in the 19th Century, collage art was utilized by hobbyists for photo albums and memorabilia. Also, authors such as Hans Christian Anderson utilized collage for book art.
Then, finally, in 1912… we find our old friends George Barque and Pablo Picasso experimenting with Cubisim and collage. No, Barque and Picasso did not invent collage. However, ironically, like collage itself, they took something old and made something new and exciting.
There were and are numerous modern artists who have experimented and created with mixed media and collage. One artist, Jean Arp, discovered his love of collage literally “By Chance.” Arp, a Dada artist, was struggling to find his artistic direction. The story goes that one day Arp ripped up a painting and threw the pieces in the air. When the pieces landed, Arp found what he was trying to say.
Like his contemporary, Dada and Surrealist Poet Tristian Tzara utilized words cut out from news papers and magazines to create poetry by chance.
Arp loved the fact that he could release his tight control on his art, and let the creativity happen by the laws of chance.
So, with that….I make the suggestion to you…that you try art collage and poetry by chance when you feel stuck or when you want to exercise your creative muscle. You can create this way separately or combine your collage pieces with your poetry words to make something new and exciting. Cell phones are great to take a photo of your pre-glued art to remember where all your pieces landed.
Collage and mixed media art is all around us. Earlier in the year, I saw some amazing collage-based art from children’s book illustrators at the MACC’s Coretta Scott King Illustrators Exhibition. The collage artwork found in this show highlighted an interesting 3-D effect that helped the art jump off the page.
Like the Rancho Cordova City Hall Fall Show, the subject matter is open. Think of our upcoming art show “All Mixed Up” as the Fall Show - with endless possibilities. However, now you are challenged to create with more than one medium. I hope this basic history of the mixed media art form, collage, gave you some new ideas and inspired you to create something new and exciting!
Happy Creating!
-Ron Hall
December 2020