Assemblage

"Assemblage" is the 3-D version of "collage”. "Found object fragments," "discards," or "throwaways" (artist's work to look at: Schwitters, Cornell, Rauschenberg, Bearden, etc.).


These things are organized by their specific elements. The resulting groups are then arranged into compositions of art.


Extending to many cultures of people living in family, religious, work, and various other groups; We could be viewed as a complex living version of "assemblage”(Webster 1. a group of persons or things gathered or collected).


We have “found” each other by chance; either by blood, common goals, or a certain chemistry. These connections help to formulate new ideas, innovations, and even new generations. John Anderson

Collage Themes for your sketch book


Collage Themes for your sketch book
Objective
To create 2-d artistic compositions of images and color glued to paper cut from discarded fragments. Old magazines, xeroxed self-made photography, and any scrap patterns or images printed on paper or plastic. Any flat material with color, image, or print can also be used; including packaging for anything purchased.
  1. Express your own personal ideas from your collection of cut-outs. Take time to search through magazines and save everything flat and colorful. You must create a vast collection of colors, patterns, shapes and images to choose the best elements for your collages.
  2. You must isolate your collage elements in to create a new environment for them. For example: an animal or person photographed in the desert must be cut out and placed in the kitchen. Things must be taken out of their original context and placed in a new invented context to change meaning.
  3. Be creative! It is important to use discarded material no one wants and give it new life with new meaning. Do not cut up the only existing picture of your grandparents on their wedding day. You, the artist sees something in it no one else can see until you explain visually with your unique perspective.
Materials
Careful and conscious use of appropriate tools, materials, colors and images to express your thoughtful ideas:
  • Scissors, Elmer's glue, 8.5 by 11 inch sketch book. You may also use paint and drawing medium to augment or enrich your work, but the primary focus is the collage.
  • Use discarded magazines, xerox self-made photography, and any scrap patterns or images printed on paper or plastic.
  • Work with any flat material with color, image, or print can also be used; including packaging containers for anything purchased.
Procedures
The “COLOR COLLAGE”  incorporates color theory with value and intensity changes gradating through the analogous or harmonious colors. Transition across the color wheel with as many degrees of color intensity as you can find. The PRIMARY colors (RYB) mix to produce the SECONDARY colors (OGV). The TERTIARY colors (RO and OY) are the transitional colors between the primary and its adjacent secondary color.  The ANALOGOUS colors series produce gradations of COLOR INTENSITY along a continuum between purer colors. (R, RRO, RO, ROO, O, OOY, OY, OYY, Y). These are also called HARMONIOUS colors. The COMPLIMENTARY colors are the contrasting WARM and COOL colors which are directly across one another on the color wheel, and include one primary and one secondary color (RG, OB, YV).
The “CIRCULAR COLLAGE” uses anything with CIRCLES or PARTS OF A CIRCLE. No other shape can be used; circles only. Do not cut circles out of patterns or other objects. Do not make circles; instead find them and show me part of the background, so I know it is a picture of a circle. Any color, any image, any pattern as long as the dominant feature is a CIRCLE, SPHERE, DOTS, OR LETTER “O”. Use as many variations as possible to create an interesting composition with figures, objects and anything combined.
The “ANGULAR COLLAGE” consists of TRIANGLES, SQUARES, AND RECTANGLES only; nothing else. Do not just cut out these shapes out of anything. DO NOT MAKE TRIANGLES, SQUARES, OR RECTANGLES...FIND THEM! You should have tons of leftover cutouts from your first collage; so issues from collage #1 (color theory) should be a consideration for any art piece you make from then on. Also if there are angle connected to circles from #2; use them here. A few unavoidable circles will not change the dominance of your ANGULAR COLLAGE. Arrange your shapes to create a composition with visual connections to move the viewer’s eye throughout the page. Objects can hang on the surface of the page at the same level (one dimensional; flat surface); or they can be oblique angles that move the eye back in space, away from the surface of the page (in one or two point perspective illusion of space). You obviously do not have room for everything you found for you collage on one 8.5 x 11 page in your sketchbook. You need to decide which are the most important and which fit together best. Images fit together by lines, shapes, and color; and that is when strange and disparate elements combine to express new and unintended meaning.
The “QUIET COLLAGE” consists of softer hues, and smoother shapes to present a harmonious mood. This collage has simple shapes with softer angles and corners, and can be used in small details to give a sense of structure. The dominant shapes have smooth and soft  curves. Simplicity dominates over complexity in design. Incorporate a theme or idea to give the viewer something to think about and identify. Include something about your future or your past. Incorporate what you learned in the previous collage. Think of collages #s 1,2 and 3 as a separate layer of meaning for this collage and any future art you produce.
The “LOUD COLLAGE” This is the “Cirque du Collage” of the new millennium. Include the dynamics of a performance extravaganza. Express visually elements of theater, music, dance, and sports into your 8.5 x 11 composition in your sketchbook. Combine intense colors and their compliments for brightness and exuberance. Use sharp angles and open curves to move the viewer’s eye around the page.
This is your FINAL STORY COLLAGE PROJECT to be executed on larger piece of paper (11 x 17)    outside of your sketchbook and during class time. Think of the previous five exercises in your sketchbook as ideas to be applied to your final project.
This is a collage picture of a landscape and/or an interior view showing life from the present and/or the past. You can include cutouts meaningful to you in your environment.
Refer to the collages of Romare Bearden: http://www.michenermuseum.org/exhibits/bearden.php ; http://dallasmuseumofart.org  Search Romare Bearden in Collections; http://www.artic.edu/artaccess  Click on African American Art.
“Romare Bearden (1911-1988) filled his work with symbols of the American black experience. ...[He] was best known for his collages in which he fused elements of past and present; fragments of his [childhood]; vivid [images] of [his home area]; along with historical, literary, and musical references to create rich, multi-layered collages that reflect... his [lifetime].”
“...Bearden’s collages blended painting, magazine clippings, old paper, and fabric, like a jigsaw puzzle in upheaval. But unlike a puzzle, each piece...has a meaning and history all it’s own...[He] said working with fragments of the past brought them into the now.”
“Bearden drew from many diverse sources and influences in creating his work---from European masters to African Art, history and literature, religious subjects and ritual practices, jazz and the blues, along with the landscapes and atmospheres of the places he lived... ...Bearden developed a passion for jazz; a form whose rhythms  and intervals seems to have influenced his visual work. His practice of employing REPEATED MOTIFS, often with slight variations, echoes the ‘call and response’ aspect of jazz.”



STUDENT EXAMPLES:







COLOR COLLAGE






CIRCULAR COLLAGE




ANGULAR  COLLAGE






QUIET  COLLAGE




LOUD  COLLAGE







THE FINAL STORY COLLAGE



































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