Collage: The Making of Modern Art

Description

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 very heart of modern art, 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 off-shoots of collage, including assemblage, montage, photo-montage and decollage, as well as related practices such as detournement. Along the way it outlines a new vision of modern art springing from this most simple and democratic of techniques.

Brandon Taylor is currently Professor at Southampton Solent University. His previous books include Art of Today, Avant-Garde and After and Art of the Soviets.

'Sumptuous ... erudite but never over-scholarly ... a hugely enjoyable trip' - What's On In London 'The fullest and best-written history of the subject so far. It covers a vast amount of ground and reproduces many unfamiliar works ... excellent' - Frank Whitford, The World of Interiors