Collage is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but also in music, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. It involves overlapping pieces of material, such as photographs, fabric, colored and textured paper, and other types of mixed media. The term "collage" comes from the French term "coller," meaning "to glue" or "to stick together". A collage may include magazine and newspaper clippings, ribbons, paint, bits of colored or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or texts, photographs, and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas.
Collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but it made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty. The pioneers of the Cubist movement, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, experimented with assorted materials, such as printed oilcloth, newspaper cut-outs, and patterned paper, and coined the term "collage" around 1910.
There are many different styles of collage, including abstract artwork and artwork that tells a story with people in different settings. Some artists make collages by cutting out different objects from photographs and magazines to glue them together to make a finished scene, while others use several different materials, such as paper, paint, string, and objects from nature like leaves. Digital collage is also a popular technique that involves using computer tools to create chance associations of disparate visual elements and transform the visual results through the use of electronic media.
In summary, collage is an art form that involves assembling different pieces of material to create a new, finished work of art. It can be made from a variety of materials and techniques and has a rich history dating back hundreds of years.
