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A History of Collage in Eight Artists
We take a look back at the key figures in the development of the vibrant and inventive art form
By
Adam Wells
July 22, 2022
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
Hannah Höch
One of the originators of photomontage, German Dada artist Hannah Höch was widely known for her politically-focused collages in which she reappropriated and reframed text and images from everyday media. In doing so, her works provide an incisive critique of mass media and the socially constructed roles found therein through the juxtaposition of various cultural signifiers; in her 1930 piece Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum, the face of silent film star Maria Falconetti is combined with that of a traditional Cameroonian mask, with a headdress made of kitchen utensils atop the figure’s head, offering commentary on the figure of the ‘New Woman’ in contemporary Weimar Germany.
Kurt Schwitters
Often credited with paving the way for pop art later in the 20th century, Kurt Schwitters was a key figure of the Modernist art movement. After being exiled from Germany under Nazi rule, Schwitters lived in the Lake District and developed the concept of Merz pictures - that is, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’. In Merz pictures, anything could be used to create art beyond the traditional building blocks of paint and ink; materials such as wood, plaster and cotton figure extensively in Schwitters’ work, and this broadening of artistic materials proved to be particularly influential in the future of collage as an art form.
Man Ray
Though widely known for his pioneering work in the field of fashion and portrait photography, American artist Man Ray was also celebrated for his use of photomontage. His work with photograms - or ‘rayographs’ as he informally referred to them - dissected cultural conceptions of femininity, inspired by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements which he was loosely associated with. His 1936 portrait of Dora Maar, for instance, utilises superimposition and negative light to fracture not only its subject, but the very image itself, highlighting the conceptual possibilities found within the medium of collage.
Joseph Cornell
Despite barely leaving the state of New York, Joseph Cornell used collage to travel the world; inspired by the surrealist movement - and perhaps even further embodying Kurt Schwitters’ concept of Merz pictures - Cornell created his works out of various objects and ephemera found in Manhattan’s bookshops and dime stores. Cornell’s use of collage was appropriate for his approach to art; the light boxes created throughout his career showcased his myriad interests in such subjects as cinema, ornithology, literature and astronomy, with the various object d'art used in his works reflecting the variety of subjects contained within. With his work admired by such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Robert Motherwell and echoes of his style found later in pop art and minimalism, Cornell’s importance in the history of collage cannot be overstated.
John Stezaker
After studying at Slade School of Art in the 1970s, conceptual artist John Stezaker went on to create his irreverent, deliberately uncanny pieces playing glamorous 1950s photographic portraits found in books, magazines and on posters. These ‘readymades’ - as Stezaker referred to them - blurred the lines between forms, time periods and even gender, frequently combining well-known faces, overlapping portraits with landscapes and still-life photography, and marrying film stills with other discordant images. Stezaker won acclaim for his use of collage to deconstruct persona and personality, creating portraits simultaneously devoid of identity and creating new illusory figures. The mixed reception to him winning the Deutsche Börse photography prize only further highlights the liminality of collage as an art form; while many questioned whether an artist who engages in the destruction of photographs could win a photography prize, others argued that his utilisation of the art form in the creation of another is perhaps the perfect representation of the unique appeal of collage.
Martha Rosler
One of the seminal figures in early Feminist art, Martha Rosler’s use of photomontage utilises collages unique ability to simultaneously address multiple social issues in a single image. Largely focusing on the horrors of war and the domestic roles that women are expected to play in society, Rosler’s work tackles these apparently disparate concepts and investigates the various ways in which they are both the result of the same American imperialism. Her images combine the frequent depiction of women as spectacle with the images of war frequently relegated to the background, making literal the depiction of conflict often found in mass media, in which the actual suffering is downplayed in favour of the supposed ‘good’ of the conflict. Utilising the same technique to criticise America’s war with Vietnam and the Iraq War in 2003, Rosler’s messages are as starkly relevant today as they have ever been.
Lorna Simpson
The American artist Lorna Simpson uses collage to interrogate perceptions of race, gender and identity, often through the medium of African-American hairstyles. Building upon images from magazines which celebrate black culture such as Jet and Ebony, Simpson’s aim throughout her career has been to “re-examine and re-define photographic practice for contemporary relevance”, with the result investigating how these previously-mentioned narrow cultural views can affect human interaction, relationships and even memory. By reframing mass-produced notions of beauty with her own artistic flair, Simpson offers a contemporary take on the still-unexplored possibilities of collage as an artistic medium.
Soda_Jerk
Made up of Australian siblings Dan and Dominique Angeloro, New York-based art duo Soda_Jerk extend collage beyond the realm of photography and onto the screen; utilising audio-visual sources and samples, the pair have created short films out of existing footage since 2002, building upon the aims of earlier pioneers of the medium to critique contemporary society and politics. The synopsis for their 2018 film TERROR NULLIUS, for instance, describes it as “Part political satire, eco-horror and road movie [...] a world in which minorities and animals conspire, and not-so-nice white guys finish last”. Their 2016 short film The Was also saw the duo partner with sample-based ‘plunderphonics’ band The Avalanches to create a sun-tinged, hallucinogenic portrait of a suburb populated by various countercultural figures, with the collaboration further demonstrating the potential of collage as it extends to an audio-visual medium.
