In 1912, Pablo Picasso and George Braque began experimenting with combining artworks on a page. As art critic Michael Bird wrote, it 鈥渢ransformed collage from parlour game to avant-garde medium.鈥 The process soon became popular in Modernist and Cubist circles, as artists sought new methods of creative expression, Yet, this narrative, as Fiona Rogers writes in the introduction to聽Cut Out,聽presents 鈥渉istorians and art critics with something of a conundrum.鈥 The reality is that there were makers all over the world, mostly women, folk and Indigenous artist, who have been relegated to the margins of the practice.
Cut Out, a new publication from Thames & Hudson presents collage, assemblage and montage as a form of resistance, inextricably tied up with class, race and gender. The book demonstrates how practitioners from the 19th聽century to today have contributed to a 鈥渄efiantly feminist, rather than feminine, art experience.鈥 In this expansive survey, readers encounter Victorian album makers; Modernist, Surrealist and Dadaist innovators; and radical, second-wave feminist artists. Particularly compelling are the book鈥檚 鈥淚n Focus鈥 chapters, where the focus homes in on a single individual鈥檚 influence on the medium. Those featured include Dora Maar, Hannah H枚ch, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas and Wangechi Mutu.聽
What sets聽Cut Out聽apart from other art history books is its ability to look forwards, as well as back. As Rogers writes in the final chapter 鈥減hotomontage, collage and assemblage can speak simultaneously to the present and the future, blending fact with fiction.鈥 This last section reconciles those who came before with the artists pioneering new techniques today. Methods, technologies and crises may evolve, but collage鈥檚 ability to say something powerful about conflict, inequality and existential threats is as strong as ever.聽
Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage is published by Thames & Hudson.
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. 漏 The Victoria and Albert Museum, Claude Cahun (1894鈥1954), Aveux non Avenus [Disavowed Confessions], Platinum prints, 1930; printed 2004. 18 脳 13 cm (each). V&A: E.714-2005 to E.721-2005.
2. 漏 The Victoria and Albert Museum, Elem茅rn茅 Marsovszky (1895鈥1944), Untitled (women holding ball with skull emblem), c. 1930. Halftone on paper. 22.2 脳 14 cm. V&A: PH.1013-2024.
3. 漏 The Victoria and Albert Museum, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815鈥1879), Kate Dore with Photogram Frame of Ferns, photograph by Oscar Gustav Rejlander in collaboration with Julia Margaret Cameron, c. 1862. Albumen print. 19.6 脳 15 cm. V&A: PH.258-198.
