Assemblage

Assemblage

Visual representation response to

City of Glass (Auster)

A word from the French “joining”

It’s a collection of persons or things, a gathering—our movement sessions are an assemblage

It’s the act of assembling or the state of being assembled

It’s an artistic composition made from scraps, junk, and odds and ends (as of paper, cloth, wood, stone,

or metal)

It’s the art of making assemblages

What is Assemblage?

On Assemblage from the gallery of

Today, assemblage encompasses all works that are assembled from found objects or material from everyday life. The term is frequently associated with a very Bauderlarian sensibility in its expression of modern life and, in particular, of urban culture.

Some history…

Jean Dubuffet French, b. Le Havre, 1901 - 1985 Butterfly-Wing Figure, OCTOBER 1953Butterfly wings and gouache on paperboard 9 7/8 x 7 5/16 in. (25.0 x 18.5 cm.)

Jean Dubuffe’s early 1950s work is noted as the beginning of assemblage art because he titled his collage arrangement of actual butterflies, assemblages d'empreintes.

http://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk

But…• The “found object” works of

Pablo Picasso preceded Dubuffet. The Tate Gallery in the U.K. refers to Picasso's Cubist constructions, (three dimensional works that he began to make from 1912) as early examples of assemblage.

• Still Life 1914 is made from scraps of wood and a length of tablecloth fringing, glued together and painted.

25.4 x 45.7 x 9.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

And…

• Marcel Duchamp’s Trois Stoppages Étalon 1913–14 assembled: 3 threads glued to 3 painted canvas strips, each mounted on a glass panel; three wood slats shaped along one edge to match the curves of the threads; the whole fitted into a wood box, 11 1/8 x 50 7/8 x 9"

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

And…

• Kurt Schwitters (1887-1949) experimented assemblages - which he called Merzbild, which in 1919 he defined as

• “The word Merz denotes essentially the combination, for artistic purposes, of all conceivable materials, and, technically, the principle of the equal distribution of the individual materials ... A perambulator wheel, wire-netting, string and cotton wool are factors having equal rights with paint.” (www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk)

Merzbild 46 A. Das Kegelbild (Merzpicture 46 A. The Skittle Picture), 1921 Assemblage of wood, oil, metal, and board on board, with artist's frame

Bild mit Korbring (Picture with Basket Ring) 1938 (MOMA, New York.) Assemblage: wood, rattan ring, paper, iron and steel nails on wood, 15 x 11 3/4" (38.1 x 29.8 cm)

And there is Jean Crotti (1878-1958) who in 1916 created…

• Le Clown (lead wire, glass eyes, and colored paper attached to glass)

(Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris)

Joseph Cornell

It’s the work of 20th century New York artist Joseph Cornell (1903 - 1972) that has brought such popularity to assemblage. Cornell is America’s salute to the Surrealism movement.

“Joseph Cornell almost never left New York City, yet his works transport viewers to worlds far beyond the mundane realities of his urban, terrestrial life. It is in between the spaces of surreal fantasy and the invocation of an infinite, temporal expanse that Cornell truly captures your imagination.” (from the exhibit:Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts)

His use of boxes has given the art a standard feature. You will use a box or frame to construct your assemblage.

•Make a box•Use a found wooden box•Use a found small cabinet drawer

Untitled (Grand Hôtel de l'Observatoire), 1954. Box construction and collage, 18 5/16 x 12 15/16 x 3 7/8 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,

• Space Object Box: "Little Bear, etc." motif, mid-1950s- early 1960s. Box construction and collage, 11 x 17 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

• Defense d'Afficher Object (Don’t display {limelight}) 1939 (140 Kb); Construction, 8 15/16 x 13 15/16 x 2 1/8 in; Collection Denise and Andrew Saul

• Object (Abeilles) (bees) 1940 (190 Kb); Construction, 9 1/8 x 14 1/8 x 3 7/16 in; Collection Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Wiseman,

Beverly Hills, CA

• Untitled 1942 (150 Kb); Construction, 13 1/8 x 10 x 3 1/2 in; Private collection, New York

• Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall) 1945-46 (110 Kb); Construction,

20 1/2 x 16 x 3 1/2 in; Collection Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Bergman, Chicago

• Untitled (Pink Palace) c. 1946-48 (160 Kb); Construction, 10 x 16 7/16 x 3 3/4 in; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

• Untitled (Hotel du Cygne) c. 1952-55 (170 Kb); Construction, 19 3/16 x 12 3/4 x 4 1/2 in; Castelli Feigen Corcoran

• Untitled (Apollinaris) c. 1954 (170 Kb); Construction, 15 15/16 x 9 3/4 x 4 3/8 in; Collection Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Bergman,

Chicago

From Sotheby’s 2001 auction catalog

Lot 195, "Construction II (Custodian, Silent Dedication to MM)," by Cornell, is a homage to Marilyn Monroe even though the objects in the mixed media construction do not directly relate to the actress. The excellent work measures 18 by 12 by 5 inches and was executed in 1963. It has been consigned by the Collection of 7-Eleven, Inc., and has an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $92,750

Josep0h CornellConstruction II (Custodian, Silent Dedication to MM (1963)

I had to include this city art.

• This Thiebaud oil on canvas was estimated to sell for between $180,000 to $220,000 at a 2001 Sotheby’s art auction. It sold for $456,750. It is property of the Collection of 7-Eleven, Inc.

"Interchange," by Wayne Thiebaud, 1979 (39X26 inches)