I am a LAYERIST and have worked as a collage artist since 1985.  I love paper, love to work with paper and I say my life is about glue – getting things to stick.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COLLAGE

© Nancy Egol Nikkal, April 2020

Collage began in the Far East in the 12th century, before the age of manufacturing, when paper was precious, and was regarded as a sacred ceremonial material.

The first known collages are from Japan where calligraphers copied poems onto collaged papers. From the 19th century on, collage followed the trade routes and paper moved West, and the history of collage follows the manufacture of paper.

Picasso and Braque are credited with the invention of modern collage (1912-1914), and the English word collage comes from the French words papiers colle (glued paper), a term coined by the Cubists. But, broadly, collage is bigger than Cubism and also includes montage, photocollage and assemblage (3D collage).

I recommend The Collage Handbook, by John and Joan Digby, Thames & Hudson, 1985. It has an excellent chapter on the history of collage and includes images and text on most of the great collage artists. It is a great resource for all artists who work in collage, and it’s not an expensive book to buy. John Digby is a collage artist and a poet. Joan Digby is a Prof. of English at CW Post College at Long Island University, and a published author and magazine writer on contemporary collage.

The Digbys include a chapter on the Dada art movement, which developed during WWI in Europe as a protest against war and industrialism, and generated two COLLAGE SUPERHEROES – Kurt Schwitters and Max Ernst.

They call KURT SCHWITTERS (1887-1948) “the master builder of material surfaces,” and call MAX ERNST (1891-1976) “the archimageo of dreams.”

I love the work of SCHWITTERS because he reaffirmed the aesthetic value of paper collage, and the value of composition. Schwitters found papers in the street, and composed masterful, abstract works with artistic unity.

According to The Collage Handbook, there is no one who had a bigger impact on collage than MAX ERNST. They wrote: Ernst liberated collage from art, from the concerns with plastic and visual planes, and turned it into a theater of the irrational.

In contemporary art criticism, there is always a dialogue about collage as media or as narrative. Collage can be high brow or can be low brow. The art vs. craft divide has narrowed. Critics say Schwitters was about media and Ernst was about narrative. I say Picasso was about media, and the narrative was always about Picasso. In modern and contemporary collage, any media is ok as long as it communicates a contemporary vibe.

Some books on contemporary COLLAGE explore surface planes and discuss collage as a commentary on contemporary culture, and also on waste and consumer consumption.

I teach a class  titled Create with Collage at the Pelham Art Center in Pelham, NY and have taught museum workshops, including special focus workshops on great historic collage artists.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Collage is the most democratic art medium of all, and it is so user friendly!

Collage materials are common and available to everyone. If your media is paper, you can work with magazines, found papers like cards and letters, even junk mail. You can purchase media online and (less and less) at retail outlets that sell hand-made papers, tissue papers, and even beautiful gift wrap.   Always try to get papers that are acid free.

My favorite modern collage and assemblage artists include: Romare Bearden, Ray Johnson, Robert Rauchenberg, Ann Ryan,  Joseph Cornell, Betye Saar, Ellen Gallagher, Robert Motherwell (and the list goes on).

I especially love Motherwell’s comments: Collage is part of a perpetual voyage of self-discovery and refinement – An intellectual “grand tour” through philosophies and civilizations whose thought and artifacts are distilled in the “tearingness” of original edges.”

See a free tutorial on painting papers.

See my collages at: http://www.nikkal.com

Please email me your comments or questions.