THE COLLAGE RENAISSANCE

THE COLLAGE RENAISSANCE

Contemporary collage is the new Pop Art collectors are buying into

by Harriet Baker

Contemporary artists are having a hell of a lot of fun with found imagery. In response to the rise of digital media or the return of handmade and craft elements, collage artists are announcing themselves in new and innovative ways. Take Quentin Jones, whose languid swoops of ink and fruity nudes have made her a darling of the fashion industry, or Ernesto Artillo, a Spanish artist who has worked with the likes of Elie Saab and Céline, bringing slick sophistication and a minimalist streak to a medium occasionally chaotic.

Kieran Madden: Mantis, 2014

The best way to determine the reason for collage’s resurgence is perhaps to look to its core. Collage art has by and large been made in response – to a social milieu, a political regime or artistic value system. It’s a subculture, a place where humour meets politics and statements are made. In an age of social media and image production - from Instagram to GIFs – practitioners of collage favour the hand splicing of recycled images into new configurations. It’s an analogue format that creates contemporary hybrids. From its roots in European Dadaism in the early years of the twentieth century, shadowing modernism and tracing its way through photography, collage is a medium as diverse as it is politically charged. Coined by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, the term ‘collage’ points towards a medium simultaneously serious and tongue-in-cheek; a technique that is deeply referential of the political world in which the works were produced.

Dennis Busch: Girl, 2013 (Detail)

Contemporary practitioners do not shy away from bold statements. John Stezaker’s collages are irreverent. A British artist who trained in the 1970s, his use of glamorous portraits of dapper men and Hollywood stars mashed with landscapes, have the effect of the uncanny. In 2012, Stezaker won the Deutsche Börse photography prize to a mixed reception, as a few critics questioned whether a conceptual artist – who deals with the destruction of photographs – could win a prestigious photography award, proving that collage as an art form continues to be nothing if not controversial. Stezaker’s artworks command a high selling price, showing that the value of these works continue to rise despite the controversy that surrounds their creation.

Quentin Jones: Electric Circus, 2014

And however clichéd it sounds, it is this turning of something old into something new that is a pull for many artists. US-based Jesse Treece’s collages have a vintage feel – his images come from science fiction, comic books and album artwork of the 1990s. “For me it's a way of taking something from the past and making it seem new. I'm trying to use elements and textures that seem familiar to create new worlds.”

There are many of this ilk, and in fact Treece confesses that it is difficult to be original. Joe Castro creates vintage Technicolor worlds, whilst the work of Alexandre Coll has a similarly dystopian feel, taking sci-fi images and turning them into something new. “I try to convert concepts in landscapes,” he says. He experimented with collage and stop-motion animation, creating a music video using 2500 photographic images and a programme called Dragon Frame. But like the work of Höch, where Coll’s collages might seem chaotic, they are in fact tightly organised. “I think organization and methodology are good friends of collage,” he says.

Kerstin Stephan: Adores Me, 2012 & Flower Head, 2012

Where some artists play with dystopian worlds through their work, female practitioners of the medium are using collage to tackle issues of identity and self-portrayal. Annegret Saltau fiercely examines her own identity through portrayal in collage through hand-stitching images of her own face together. She says, “I want to exchange different levels in my work: young and old, animal and human, head and body, eyes and mouth, inside and outside) in order to look behind the ‘mask’ and to turn the inside out.” The stitches threaded throughout her pieces are a metaphorical testament to the complications of self-definition. These new artists are examining femininity and identity in novel ways: look to the work of Dennis Busch, whose work sees gems and flowers superimposed over the female form, or for a slightly darker take on female sexuality, Kieran Madden uses images from American films and collages in a traditional method to create alternative narratives.

The list, simply, could go on. To see more collage works visit our collection at www.kidsofdada.com/collections/art/collage

Comments


loanemu on October 12 2015 at 07:04AM

You are a very persuasive writer. How do I know? Because I am usually unwaivering when it comes to my opinions. You made me rethink my thoughts on this topic.

Leave a comment

Please note: comments must be approved before they are published.

MEET THE ARTISTS CHINA CAN'T KEEP CONTAINED

Artists Sun Yuan & Peng Yu display dead babies & live animals at Guggenheim Museum Exhibition

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

JOSEPH BEUYS: I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME

What we can learn from artist about race relations and how to heal a nation    

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

A SEXLESS SOCIETY IS HERE

Fashion rides the gender blending trend  

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

NAN GOLDIN: THE BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCY

The artist captures the essence of humanity and life on the edge

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE HEDI SLIMANE EFFECT ON YVES SAINT LAURENT

How the designer remade the house of Yves Saint Laurent

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

SYNCHRODOGS: “I must be dreaming”

We speak to the photography duo about synchronicity & the power of dreams

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE COLLAGE RENAISSANCE

Contemporary collage is the new Pop Art collectors are buying into

Harriet Baker

Read more »
Share »

DAVID BOWIE PUSHED THE LIMITS OF MUSIC, ART & FASHION

Bowie was an artist and an explorer that embodied true individuality that our generation craves

Fiona Ma

Read more »
Share »

MEET THE ARTISTS CHINA CAN'T KEEP CONTAINED

Artists Sun Yuan & Peng Yu display dead babies & live animals at Guggenheim Museum Exhibition

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

JOSEPH BEUYS: I LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES ME

What we can learn from artist about race relations and how to heal a nation    

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

A SEXLESS SOCIETY IS HERE

Fashion rides the gender blending trend  

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

NAN GOLDIN: THE BALLAD OF SEXUAL DEPENDENCY

The artist captures the essence of humanity and life on the edge

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE HEDI SLIMANE EFFECT ON YVES SAINT LAURENT

How the designer remade the house of Yves Saint Laurent

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

SYNCHRODOGS: “I must be dreaming”

We speak to the photography duo about synchronicity & the power of dreams

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE COLLAGE RENAISSANCE

Contemporary collage is the new Pop Art collectors are buying into

Harriet Baker

Read more »
Share »

DAVID BOWIE PUSHED THE LIMITS OF MUSIC, ART & FASHION

Bowie was an artist and an explorer that embodied true individuality that our generation craves

Fiona Ma

Read more »
Share »

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY GETS HYPER-REAL

From Erwin Blumenfeld to Nick Knight, fashion constructs fantastical images

Greg French

Read more »
Share »

THE EVOCATIVE IMAGES OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Eminent street photographers find beauty in the ordinary

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

THE ZINE SCENE IS BACK

Self-Publishing is Having a Moment and It’s Redefining Youth and Self Expression

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

PLASTIC PURGERY – BARBIE IN BONDAGE BREAKS THE INTERNET

Photographer Mariel Clayton Reinvents the Stereotype of the Female Form

Fiona Ma

Read more »
Share »

LOUIS VUITTON - SERIES 3 EXHIBITION

Nicolas Ghesquière: less mask, more man

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

REGENERATION OR GENTRIFICATION?

The changing face of London’s artistic communities

Peter Yeung

Read more »
Share »

INSIDE THE CHELSEA HOTEL

The legendary New York hangout of rockstars and Hollywood royalty

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

IN CONVERSATION WITH OLAF BREUNING

The artist talks about the endless interpretations of his work and life

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

REVEALED: KURT COBAIN'S ORIGINAL ARTWORK

A dark look into the mind of Nirvana’s tortured frontman

Daryl Mersom

Read more »
Share »

ABOUT A GIRL: TEENAGERS IN POP CULTURE

Exploring media fantasies from saints to bad-ass sinners of female youth

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

ART GONE VIRAL

Performance art videos are paving the way for activism through social media

Leah Sinclair

Read more »
Share »

IN CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST TOM LEAMON

The ritual experiments of painting and poetry

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

COLLAGE ARTIST HOLLY-ANNE BUCK/COLLAGISM

We talk to the artist about playing with abstraction & reconstructing reality

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

FROM UNISEX TO ANTI-FASHION

Meet Rudi Gernreich, the first gender blender fashion activist

Alessandro Esculapio

Read more »
Share »

THE REVIVAL OF WARP N’ WEFT

From artisan to art; the lost craft of tapestry is making a comeback

KOD Staff

Read more »
Share »

THE ALCHEMY OF COLLAGE: ARTISTS IRINA & SILVIU SZEKELY

Art is not art if it doesn’t generate misrepresentation, confusion, anger or sarcasm

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »

THE CREATIVE CLASS: MAKING IT THEIR WAY

Photographer Francesca Allen captures the talented, genuine and real

Maria Raposo

Read more »
Share »

'80S ICON KEITH HARING’S POP SHOP

The Art and Commerce of Giving Back

Alessandro Esculapio

Read more »
Share »

THE DEATH OF BRONSON

The art and literature of "Charles Bronson"; Britain's most notorious prisoner

KOD Staff

Read more »
Share »

THE PSYCHEDELIC LOVE-IN OF THE FABULOUS COCKETTES

San Francisco’s original underground glitter troupe

KOD Staff

Read more »
Share »

THE MODERN DAY DANDY CULT

Old fashioned values and classic sartorial style returns to mens fashion

Ellie Howard

Read more »
Share »
Top