Collage: The Making of Modern Art

by Brandon Taylor

"A masterful and lavishly illustrated landmark surveythe first to cover the history of collage in this much depth." - Library Journal From the seminal moment in 1908 when the young Picasso took a piece of brown card pasted with a "Magasins du Louvre" label and converted it into a new kind of picture, collage has been at the heart of modern art. Indeed, in seeking to transform the discarded scraps and residues of everyday life, the technique found extraordinary new opportunities for subversive rupture, playful artifice, and surreal juxtaposition, together with a completely new conception of the work of art as a material thing. Collage quickly became essential to the idea of the modern, leaving its mark on almost every art movement since, from Dada and Constructivism, via Surrealism, Pop, and Situationism, to the digital techniques of today.

This book, the first comprehensive survey of the technique, explores in full the theoretical implications and political messages behind the work of the past century, explaining how the process was intimately linked to other revolutions in art practice. It covers the many offshoots of collage, including assemblage, montage, photomontage, and decollage. Along the way it outlines a new vision of modern art springing from this most simple and democratic of techniques. 206 illustrations, 91 in color.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art Design, History

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Brandon Taylor is Professor in the History of Art, University of Southampton. His other publications include Art and Literature Under the Bolsheviks, Art for the Nation: Exhibitions and the London Public, and Art Today.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty thorough (though sometimes stiff and overly academic) look at the history of collage art (up until the 90s at least). Pretty great sampling of work. I especially liked the chapter about the California collage scene (like Wallace Berman and George Herms) that was inspired by various poets like Rexroth, Duncan, and Kerouac.

[Sherry (sethurner) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this heft reference book at our local library, intending to flip through the illustrations. In the end I read the entire book, and was particularly interested in the early history of collage, Picasso and Braque. The writing style is academic and rather dry, not for the casual reader, but there is much of interest here in how art, politics and society influence one another.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collage is about the history of the art of collage. Picasso and Braque and the Dadaists originated the style and there are samples from several different Modern Expressionist artists.

Some of the collages were interesting and the history was informative, but I felt as the years progressed the quality of the collages sunk.