History of
Collage

Collages are all around you.
Let us show you where to look.

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

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

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

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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

A photomontage printed as a photograph. This piece of contemporary art is a commentary on society’s objectification of women.

Martha Rosler, Cargo Cult from the series Body Beautiful,
or Beauty Knows No Pain, c. 1967-1972

This nine-foot square art piece was made in the Fauvism style. It’s an example of papiers découpés: a collage made out of paper cut outs.

Henri Matisse, Memory of Oceania, 1952-3

Embark on a journey through the history of collage: its creators, different techniques, and art pieces that made history!

A cut and paste collage made of adhesive tape, crayons and pieces of paper. A landmark of Cuban art.

Sandra Ceballos, Bandera, from the series El Consejo and me, 2009

A Dadaist photomontage made with pieces of newspaper. Hannah Höch often used her work as a political commentary.

Hannah Hoch, Der Vater, 1920, Collage

This Dadaist satire was made with lithographs and printed paper.

Raoul Hausmann. The Art Critic (1919–20)

Narratives

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?

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?

Beata Brol, 2022

Movie poster for Mushrooms in Space. Its trailer tells us a story: In a world where everything is upside down, one NASA astronaut finds herself in front of the biggest threat of them all - space mushrooms. Tickets on sale on August 21st.

Spaceman on a mushroom with a moon instead of head

Ilona Górska, 2022

What if the Moon was a person? And what if that person was actually a plant? This, and many more questions can be asked by this collage. Unfortunately, we have to find the answers ourselves.

Dmytro Zozulia, 2022

“Houston, we made it! This planet is just… wow. It has mushrooms the size of a mountain. And the moon is so close! Houston, I’m taking my helmet off. Let’s see if I can breathe in this atmosphere.”

try me

try me

try me

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

History ofCollage

Narratives

TOGETHER

History of
Collage