Fun with Collage

■ When the famous artist Matisse was older, he was diagnosed with cancer and confined to a wheelchair. Anxious from the thought of not being able to sculpt or paint, he turned to collage to express his artistic voice. Matisse called it “painting with scissors.”

Definition of Collage

■ The term “collage” was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.

Pablo Picasso, Compotier avec fruits, violon et verre, 1912

■ Picasso, along with Georges Braque, popularized the term, based on the French word coller – “to glue.”

■ Today, the dictionary defines collage as “an artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying shapes and colour.”

■ Anything glued or pasted onto a surface might be interpreted as collage:❑ newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or

handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs and other found objects

Jean (Hans) Arp, Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to

the Laws of Chance), 1915-17

Arp made "chance collages” by tearing paper into pieces, dropping them onto a larger sheet, and pasting each scrap wherever it happened to fall. The relatively ordered appearance of Arp's collages suggests, however, that the artist did not fully relinquish artistic control.

Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly

Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of

pasted papers

Hannah Hoch was a German artist who was the first woman accepted in the Dada Movement. In 1919, she was the first artist to create a photomontage.

David Hockney, Self Portrait, 1954, collage

on newsprint

This self-portrait was made when Hockney was 17 years old. He made it for an English assignment.

The Block is organized in six panels that together measure eighteen feet. The collage provides a view of the daily routines of everyday life in Harlem, mixed with fantasy and pure imagination. The vantage point lets us see indoor and outdoor scenes simultaneously, a unique view of public and private life.

Romare Bearden, The Block, 1971, cut and pasted printed, colored and metallic papers, photostats, pencil,

ink marker, gouache, watercolor, and pen and ink on Masonite

Collage Sketchbook Cover Project

■ Create a collage for the front and back cover of your sketchbook. You must use one of the techniques demonstrated or a combination of the two.

■ The theme of your cover artwork is “Opposites” ■ Before you start, brainstorm different ideas.

Remember, you are going to use this sketchbook all year long so spend some time thinking about the design.

■ Tip - The secret to creating a successful college is to layer, layer, layer! None of the sketchbook paper should be left visible.

Task

Technique 1 - Photomontage

■ Photomontage is a variation of collage in which pasted items are actual photographs or photographic reproductions taken from magazines. Images from a variety of sources are pasted together to create scenes of fantasy.

Technique 2 – Ripped Paper/Mosaic Tile Technique

More examples of paper collage

Possible materials to use for your paper collage:

■ coloured construction paper■ newsprint/kraft paper■ cardboard■ lined paper■ junk mail■ phone books■ old atlases■ old books■ magazines