Newspaper Collage

While traditional academic art forms such as painting and sculpture remain popular today, the last couple of centuries have seen an explosion in the range of techniques and materials being used by visual artists. Collage is one art form that has become immensely popular in the West in this time, although it has a much longer history than some realize. As far back as the 12th century, Japanese artists stuck paper onto silk to produce artworks. In Europe, paper collage has a history that dates back to the 15th century. The use of collage boomed in the West, however, after it was used as a technique by the Cubist artists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Sticking pieces of newspaper and other materials onto their canvases, the Cubists employed collage as a way to produce unexpected connections and contrasts between visual elements. 

This history of newspaper collage still goes on to influence the practice of many contemporary artists today, who use the method to produce interesting and unexpected visual combinations. Jean-Jacques André uses torn extracts from printed sources to contrast color and form in vibrant compositions. Arthur Aeschbacher emphasizes the form of text in his colorful newspaper collages. Find works by these artists among many others today!