ORIGIN OF THE TERM "COLLAGE"
At the beginning of the twentieth century two
famous artists, Picasso and Braque,working in close cooperation,
resumed and developed in their own style, an interesting art form.
Desiring to add another dimension to their geometrical composition, they
started to add "papier collé" to their canvas. From "collé"(glued on)
came the new term "collage"(the technique of gluing any kind of paper or
other flat material to a painting surface).This technique of gluing flat
material on a surface is an old tradition.
In the tenth century, poets illustrated their poems with images and in the sixteenth century artists decorated their illuminated texts in this manner. Panels with gold leaves or other glued material are still decorating today arches and columns in Gothic cathedrals or walls and ceilings in famous palaces.The term, expressed by an artist at one of Picasso and Braque's exhibits, really stuck and this art form is still quite in vogue at the present time. It helped those two cubist artists and the followers to juxtapose illusion and reality and to give a sort of mystery to their creation.
The painting of Picasso to which the label of "collage' was attributed was named: "Still Life with Chair Caning" . The canvas 10 5/8" by 13 3/4" is framed by a real rope. Pieces of oil cloth looking like chair caning have been applied to the surface, and the letters "JOU" standing for journal appears painted in bold letters. The whole composition, quite different for this period of Art History, started a new creative wave. An example of Pablo Picasso's collage: "La Suze" (Glass and Bottle of Suze) was executed in 1912 with pasted paper, gouache and charcoal. This work can be viewed on the web, along other works from this twentieth famous artist, at Washington University in St. Louis in their Gallery of Art: http://www.wustl.edu/galleryofart/permanent.html.Braque's first painting in this new style, which might have been done in close cooperation with Picasso, was called: "Fruit Dish and Glass" . This canvas also well deserves the title of "collage" by the use of wallpaper and other flat material glued on the painting surface. Three of Braque's collages can be viewed below with the authorization of Mark Harden's Archive.
