Novembrulage: collage, etc.

Collage, Decoupage, Assemblage, Bricolage…

What is the difference?

They all end with “age.”

Collage is an art technique that involves pasting paper, photographs, textiles, text, and other found materials onto a surface. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique gained attention in the early 20th century as an art form when Picasso and Braque popularized “Papier Colle.”

Pat Pendleton

J. Tim Raymond

J. Tim Raymond

Several of Raymond’s collages are featured in a book,

Revenge of the Intellect (full preview available here)

Whereas Collage tends to emphasize composition and is considered a fine art, Decoupage is also a process of affixing papers to a surface, but the aim is primarily for the decoration of an object . . . like this wine bottle I decoupaged several years ago.

Assemblage became hugely popular with the anti-art Dadaists, who brought everyday matter into sculptural forms, intertwining art with nature and ordinary life. Tim assembles these on a regular basis from whatever happens to appear . . .

My favorite, Bricolage, can simply be an array of objects viewed together–by chance or intention. Characteristic of postmodern art practice and the DIY (do it yourself) artists of the last couple decades, diverse elements often work together to create new meanings—also indicative of the current throwaway culture, ripe territory for the repurposing and upcycling of goods . . . or the common corner cabinet for “Bric-a-brac.”

Since the 1980s, I have used a bit of collage (paper or textile) to jumpstart paintings–not always, but I find it a good starting point since my work is not representative, but a process of adding and taking away, sometimes entirely covering over the paper, but usually leaving just a small trace of the collage elements, as shown in these details of various paintings . . .

This detail of an early one was more assemblage than collage when this remnant of old linoleum flooring pulled from a trashcan found a way into this painting . . .

Sometimes the collage element contains text . . .

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