#9 Collage; 31 days of Rhinos

..And now for something completely different!#9 Collage; 31 days of rhinos

Media: acrylic, ink and paper on canvas board

I'm coming back from the dead. I am taking Sudafed though, so I will dismiss later anything that didn't make sense this week as drug induced fuzz.

Today's Rhino will appeal to the more contemporary audience, I hope. Collage art is no new thing, though. It's been commonly referred to in Modern art since the early 20th century, but it's been used since before Christ!

If you are some kind of art purist and can't appreciate anything other than Oils (for example), you may be mocking collage art right now. Well, hopefully you will read some history and visit some museums to find that as an art form, it's been used by some of the greatest painters in history!

-[wiki excerpt- "The term collage derives from the French "coller" meaning "glue".^[1] This term was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art."]

You may remember from our quick lesson in cubism that Pablo and George were very aggressive and liked starting movements and genres and techniques...nuff said. I wonder if both their egos fit in the same room? You don't see me complaining. I'm so glad they met!

There is just so much information to give you on this subject, like that the ancient Chinese and Japanese used it, and that a lot of collage exists in the form of large scale installation art, and that Kurt Schwitters, a well-known collage-er (hehe) utilized various woods in his collages! Neat!!! The techniques and uses are as wide as the ocean and can be humorous, serious, political, non-sensical, abstract, breathtaking and more...whatever you can imagine (or randomly place!)

So hold your heads proud collage artists! You are not cottage crafters, you are in good company! If you are a collage artist, you will find yourself in good company with a boatload of artists of great fame, especially these (and, again more that are too numerous to mention)

David Hockney
Pablo Picasso
Kurt Schwitters
Marcel Duchamp
Henri Matisse
Nick Bantock (the writer---remember, The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy?)
Click to learn more on Collage art.

...and now for something completely different
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Terry Gilliam, whose animation genius depended on cutouts for creating the treasured and immortal Monty Python! --Not exactly "fine art" to hang, but you wont forget it!

So, ready to go try one? If nothing else, it lets you have a little fun!
See you later.

#9 Collage; 31 days of Rhinos