History of
Collage

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Collages are all around you.
Let us show you where to look.
Inspire me!
A Pop Art piece using the screenprint method. The idea for it came to Hamilton by accident, when he was teaching a class at the University of Newcastle.
Richard Hamilton, Interior I, 1964
Richard Hamilton, Interior I, 1964
Made with a technique called assemblage. Picasso formed a guitar using seven pieces of paper, glued together on wallpaper.
Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass, 1912
Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music and Wine Glass, 1912
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Collage is the art of “gluing pieces together”. It was made popular by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They used it as a part of the Cubism movement in the early 20th century, but they weren’t the first ones to do so - early collages, made of pieces of paper glued together, can be found as far back as 12th century Japan and China!
Collages are universal. They can be found in the works of surrealists (who used photographs), abstract expressionists, pop artists, and contemporary artists. Hover over each painting to see what kind of artform it follows.
One of Braque's early papier collé, made with glued pieces of paper.
Georges Braque, Still Life with Tenora, 1913
Georges Braque, Still Life with Tenora, 1913
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An Assemblage made with both two and three-dimensional objects. Some of them came from everyday items or even trash.
Kurt Schwitters Merz Picture 46 A. The Skittle Picture 1921
Kurt Schwitters Merz Picture 46 A. The Skittle Picture 1921

Narratives

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Anyone can do a collage! To prove it, we asked four people to create their own. Each one of these collages was made by a person from a different profession, cultural background, and level of artistic skill. They could only use five elements: the Moon, a calathea plant, a NASA astronaut, desert rocks, and mushrooms. Take a look at how different each of these collages are. Would your interpretation match theirs?
RockCosmonautMoonmushroomMoon partPlantDotsRockBlue background
Magdalena Morzuch, 2022

The Moon with a helmet on. A man taller than rocks. Vegetation on the Moon. Here, the author takes us to the world of dreams, where every rule can be broken. Or maybe it’s a nightmare?

TOGETHER

If we can do collages, so can you! Take scissors, glue, and old newspapers and get creative. But don’t limit yourself to papier collés. With collages, anything goes: photographs, everyday items - even digital images.  
Find your inner Braque and share it with the world using #boldcollage
Another papier collé and one of Picasso’s earliest collages. Picasso used multiple mediums: charcoal, ink, cut and pasted newspaper, and graphite on paper.
Pablo Picasso, Bottle and Wine Glass on a Table, 1912
Pablo Picasso, Bottle and Wine Glass on a Table, 1912