Assemblage (art)
Encyclopedia
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts
, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects. In literature
, assemblage
refers to a text "built primarily and explicitly from existing texts in order to solve a writing or communication problem in a new context".
The origin of the word (in its artistic sense) can be traced back to the early 1950s, when Jean Dubuffet
created a series of collages of butterfly wings, which he titled assemblages d'empreintes. However, both Marcel Duchamp
and Pablo Picasso
had been working with found objects for many years prior to Dubuffet. They were not alone. Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin
creates his "counter-reliefs" in the middle of 1910s. Alongside Tatlin, the earliest woman artist to try her hand at assemblage was Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
, the Dada Baroness. In addition, one of the earliest and most prolific was Louise Nevelson, who began creating her sculptures from found pieces of wood in the late 1930s.
In 1961, the exhibition "The Art of Assemblage" was featured at the New York Museum of Modern Art
. The exhibition showcased the work of early twentieth century European artists such as Braque
, Dubuffet
, Marcel Duchamp
, Picasso
, and Kurt Schwitters
alongside Americans Man Ray
, Joseph Cornell
and Robert Rauschenberg
, and also included less well known American West Coast assemblage artists such as George Herms, Bruce Conner
and Edward Kienholz
. William C Seitz, the curator of the exhibition, described assemblages as being made up of preformed natural or manufactured materials, objects, or fragments not intended as art materials.
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects. In literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, assemblage
Assemblage (composition)
Assemblage refers to a text "built primarily and explicitly from existing texts in order to solve a writing or communication problem in a new context". The concept was first proposed by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart Selber in the journal, Computers & Composition, in 2007...
refers to a text "built primarily and explicitly from existing texts in order to solve a writing or communication problem in a new context".
The origin of the word (in its artistic sense) can be traced back to the early 1950s, when Jean Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making.-Life and work:Dubuffet was...
created a series of collages of butterfly wings, which he titled assemblages d'empreintes. However, both Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
had been working with found objects for many years prior to Dubuffet. They were not alone. Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was a Russian and Soviet painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Russian avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later became the most important artist in the Constructivist movement...
creates his "counter-reliefs" in the middle of 1910s. Alongside Tatlin, the earliest woman artist to try her hand at assemblage was Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was a German-born avant-garde, Dadaist artist and poet who worked for several years in Greenwich Village, New York City, United States.-Early life:Freytag-Loringhoven was born Elsa Hildegard Plötz in Swinemünde , German Empire,...
, the Dada Baroness. In addition, one of the earliest and most prolific was Louise Nevelson, who began creating her sculptures from found pieces of wood in the late 1930s.
In 1961, the exhibition "The Art of Assemblage" was featured at the New York Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
. The exhibition showcased the work of early twentieth century European artists such as Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making.-Life and work:Dubuffet was...
, Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
, Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, and Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
alongside Americans Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
, Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage...
and Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
, and also included less well known American West Coast assemblage artists such as George Herms, Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
and Edward Kienholz
Edward Kienholz
Edward Kienholz was an American installation artist whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he assembled much of his artwork in close collaboration with his artistic partner and wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz...
. William C Seitz, the curator of the exhibition, described assemblages as being made up of preformed natural or manufactured materials, objects, or fragments not intended as art materials.
Artists primarily known for assemblage
- Vladimir TatlinVladimir TatlinVladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin was a Russian and Soviet painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Russian avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he later became the most important artist in the Constructivist movement...
(1885–1953), a Russian artist known for his counter-reliefs — structures made of wood and iron for hanging in wall corners in the 1910s. - Hans BellmerHans BellmerHans Bellmer was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer.-Biography:...
(1902–1975), a German artist known for his life-sized female dolls, produced in the 1930s. - Wallace BermanWallace BermanWallace Berman was an American visual and assemblage artist. He has been called the "father" of assemblage art and a "crucial figure in the history of postwar California art".-Personal life and education:...
(1926-1976), an American artist known for his verifax collages. - André BretonAndré BretonAndré Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
(1896–1966), a French artist, regarded as a principal founder of SurrealismSurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. - John Chamberlain (born 1927), a Chicago artist known for his sculptures of welded pieces of wrecked automobiles.
- Greg ColsonGreg ColsonGreg Colson is an American artist best known for wall sculptures constructed of salvaged materials. Colson has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Sperone Westwater , William Griffin Gallery , Galleria Cardi , Kunsthalle Lophem , Konrad Fischer , and the Lannan...
(born 1956), an American artist known for his wall sculptures of stick maps, constructed paintings, solar systems, directionals, and intersections. - Joseph CornellJoseph CornellJoseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage...
. Cornell (1903–1972), who lived in New York City, is known for his delicate boxes, usually glass-fronted, in which he arranged surprising collections of objects, images of renaissance paintings and old photographs. Many of his boxes, such as the famous Medici Slot Machine boxes, are interactive and are meant to be handled. - Rosalie GascoigneRosalie GascoigneRosalie Gascoigne was a New Zealander-Australian sculptor. She showed at the Venice Biennale in 1982, becoming the first female artist to represent Australia there. In 1994 she was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to the arts.-Life:Gascoigne was born Rosalie Norah King Walker in...
(1917–1999), a New Zealand sculptor. - Raoul HausmannRaoul HausmannRaoul Hausmann was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.-Early biography:Raoul Hausmann was...
(1886–1971), an Austrian artist and writer and a key figure in Berlin Dada, his most famous work is the assemblage Der Geist Unserer Zeit - Mechanischer Kopf (Mechanical Head [The Spirit of Our Age]), c. 1920. - Romauald Hazoumé (born 1962), a contemporary artist from the Republic of Bénin, who exhibits widely in Europe and the U.K.
- Robert H. HudsonRobert H. HudsonRobert Hudson is an American artist who was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and grew up in Richland, Washington. He received a B.F.A in 1961 and an M.F.A. in 1963, both from the San Francisco Art Institute....
(born 1938), an American artist. - Edward KienholzEdward KienholzEdward Kienholz was an American installation artist whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he assembled much of his artwork in close collaboration with his artistic partner and wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz...
(1927–1994), an American artist who collaborated with his wife, Nancy Reddin KienholzNancy Reddin KienholzNancy Reddin Kienholz is an American mixed media artist based in Hope, Idaho. She works in installation art, assemblage, photography, and lenticular printing. She is most famous for her collaborations with her husband and creative partner Edward Kienholz.-Early life:Reddin was born in Los...
, creating free-standing, large-scale "tableaux" or scenes of modern life such as the Beanery, complete with models of persons, made of discarded objects. - Jean-Jacques LebelJean-Jacques LebelJean-Jacques Lebel is a French artist, poet, poetry publisher, political activist and scholar born in Paris in 1936. He is known primarily for his work with Happenings, and as an art theory writer and art curator. He is the son of Robert Lebel, art critic and friend of Marcel Duchamp.-Life and...
(born 1936) in 1994 installed a large assemblage entitled Monument à Félix GuattariFélix GuattariPierre-Félix Guattari was a French militant, an institutional psychotherapist, philosopher, and semiotician; he founded both schizoanalysis and ecosophy...
in the Forum of the Centre Pompidou. - Ondrej MaresOndrej MaresOndrej Mares was a Czech-Australian artist and furniture designer that lived in Macclesfield, in South Australia. His work has been exhibited in Adelaide, Sydney and Prague. Mares is most famous for his Kachina pieces. In 2002, he was diagnosed with cancer. This had the effect of moving his work...
(1949–2008) was an Czech - Australian artist and sculptor best known for his 'Kachina' figures - a series of works. - Louise Nevelson (1899–1988), an American artist, is known for her abstract expressionist “boxes” grouped together to form a new creation. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her “assemblages” or assemblies, one of which was three stories high.
- Minoru OhiraMinoru OhiraMinoru Ohira is an artist who was born in Niigata, Japan. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kanazawa City Arts and Crafts College in 1975 and a Masters in Art Education from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1977. From 1979 to 1981, he continued his education at the Mexico National...
(born 1950), a Japanese-born artist. - Meret OppenheimMéret Oppenheim-External links:**** http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/man_ray.html...
(1913–1985), a German-born Swiss artist, identified with the Surrealist movement. - Robert RauschenbergRobert RauschenbergRobert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
(1925–2008), painter and collagist known for his mixed media works during six decades. - Fred H. RosterFred H. RosterFred H. Roster is an American sculptor who was born in Palo Alto, California. He received an MA in ceramics from San José State University in 1968. He came to Hawaii in 1969 on his honeymoon and decided to stay. In 1970, he earned an MFA in sculpture from the University of Hawaii at Manoa...
(born 1944), an American sculptor. - Daniel SpoerriDaniel SpoerriDaniel Spoerri is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania, who has been called "the central figure of European post-war art" and "one of the most renown[ed] [artists] of the 20th century." Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures...
(born 1930), a Swiss artist, is known for his "snare pictures" in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by individuals, including the plates, silverware and glasses, all of which are fixed to the table or board, which is then displayed on a wall. - Wolf VostellWolf VostellWolf Vostell was a German painter, sculptor, noise music maker and Happening artist of the second half of the 20th century. Wolf Vostell is considered one of the pioneers of video art, environment-sculptures, Happenings and the Fluxus Movement...
, (1932-1998) is known for his use of concrete in his work. In his environments video instalations and paintings he used television sets and concrete as well as telephones real cars and pieces of cars. - Jeff WassmannJeff WassmannJeff Wassmann is an American artist and writer, currently living in Melbourne, Australia. Wassmann's work incorporates assemblage, photography, web-based new media and aspects of culture jamming.- Early life :...
(born 1958), an American-born contemporary artist who works in Australia under the nom de plume of the pioneering German modernist Johann Dieter WassmannJohann Dieter WassmannJohann Dieter Wassmann is a fictitious artist and sewerage engineer, purportedly from Leipzig, Germany. He is the creation of the American-born artist and writer Jeff Wassmann.-Background:...
(1841–1898). - H. C. WestermannH. C. WestermannH. C. Westermann was an American printmaker and sculptor whose art constituted a scathing commentary on militarism and materialism...
(1922–1981), an American sculptor and printmaker. - ArmanArmanArman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...
(1928-2007),french artist,sculptor and painter.
Further reading
- William C. Seitz: The Art of Assemblage. Exhib. October 4 - November 12, 1961, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1961.
- Stephan Geiger: The Art of Assemblage. The Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Die neue Realität der Kunst in den frühen sechziger Jahren, (Dissertation Universität Bonn 2005), München 2008, ISBN 978-3-88960-098-1
- Sophie Dannenmüller: "Un point de vue géographique: l'assemblage en Californie", in L'art de l'assemblage. Relectures, sous la direction de Stéphanie Jamet-Chavigny et Françoise Levaillant. Presses universitaires de Rennes, collection "Art & société", Rennes, 2011.
- Sophie Dannenmüller: "L'assemblage en Californie: une esthétique de subversion", in La Fonction critique de l'art, Dynamiques et ambiguïtés, sous la direction de Evelyne Toussaint, Les éditions de La Lettre volée / Essais, Bruxelles, 2009.
- Sophie Dannenmüller: "Bruce Conner et les Rats de l'Art", Les Cahiers du Musée national d'art moderne, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, n° 107, avril 2009, p. 52-75.
- Tatlin, Vladimir Evgrafovich "Counter-relief (Material Assortment)" - http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/collection/_show/image/_id/361
See also
- Combine paintingCombine paintingA combine painting is an artwork that incorporates various objects into a painted canvas surface, creating a sort of hybrid between painting and sculpture. Items attached to paintings might include photographic images, clothing, newspaper clippings, ephemera or any number of three-dimensional objects...
s of Robert RauschenbergRobert RauschenbergRobert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations... - Neo-DadaNeo-DadaNeo-Dada is a label applied primarily to audio and visual art that has similarities in method or intent to earlier Dada artwork. It is the foundation of Fluxus, Pop Art and Nouveau réalisme. Neo-Dada is exemplified by its use of modern materials, popular imagery, and absurdist contrast...
- collageCollageA collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
- DecollageDécollageDécollage, in art, is the opposite of collage; instead of an image being built up of all or parts of existing images, it is created by cutting, tearing away or otherwise removing, pieces of an original image. Examples include inimage or etrécissements and excavations...
- BricolageBricolageBricolage is a term used in several disciplines, among them the visual arts, to refer to the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work created by such a process...