junk, funk

assemblage... the physical characteristics (of) these collages, objects, and constructions... can be

stated simply:1. They are predominantly assembled rather than painted, drawn, modeled or

carved.2. Entirely or in part, their constituent elements are preformed natural or

manufactured materials, objects, or fragments not intended as art materials.

William Seitz, art of Assemblage

The first inclusion of everyday objects into "high" art was by Picasso and Georges Braque who

collaged bits and pieces into their Cubist paintings.

... it is perfectly legitimate to use numbers and printed letters as pictorial elements; new in art, they are already soaked with humanity.

Guillaume Apollinaire, 1913

Pablo Picasso's model for 'Guitar' is the first constructed (as opposed

to modeled, carved or cast) sculpture.

"Because they are artifacts, the readymades differ fundamentally from leaves, weathered wood, butterfly wings, shells, or other natural ‘found objects.’ According to the only definition of art that Duchamp will accept as true for all times and places, all man-made objects are works of art. The readymade, therefore, was for Duchamp a ‘form of denying the possibility of defining art.’”

Man Ray

George GroszRemember Uncle August, the Unhappy Inventor, 1919

collage

A dada gesture both vulgar and disturbing,and funny to the modern sensibility

Schwitters was a very active collagist, and built the Merzbau in his studio out

of scrounged scraps. An amazing undertaking for the time, it was

bombed in WWII.

“It now seems to me that striving for expression in a work of art is harmful

to art. Art is an archprinciple, as sublime as the godhead, as inexplicable

as life, undefinable and without purpose... I know only how I do it; I

know only my material, from which I derive, to what end I know not.”

Kurt Schwitters

Meret OppenheimObject. 1936Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon

Meret OppenheimTable with Bird Legs

nd

Pablo Picasso in the 50s & 60s. Still leading the parade.

Bruce Conner (1933-2008) was a Bay Area beatnik and artist. An assemblagist, collagist, film maker, painter and all-around artistic adventurer.

Cesar (César Baldaccini, 1921-1998). A French sculptor whose work used soldered and welded metal as well

as junk materials

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972). An American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker.

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988). A flambouyant sculptress in NY for most of her life. "When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’rereally bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."

Richard Stankiewicz (1922-1983). An American sculptor, known

for his work in scrap metal, and a very influential proponent

of the form.

Richard StankiewiczPlayground, 1959

iron

“Stankiewicz creativeness is childish and barbaric. He uses things for purposes that were not intended... as the early Christians used pieces of temples for their basilicas...”

His sculpture, using junk, is a creation of life out of death, the new life being of quite a different nature than the old one that was decaying in the junk pile...”

Fairfield Porter, 1959

Jean Tinguely (1925-1991). A Swiss painter and sculptor best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, in the Dada tradition. Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society.

Jean Tinguely (1925-1991)Narva (date unknown)

Jean Tinguely (1925-1991)FountainBasel, Switzerland

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)

is most famous for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which

non-traditional materials and objects were employed in

innovative combinations. He also worked with photography,

printmaking, papermaking, and performance. He was an

extremely prolific and influential post-Expressionist artist.

“Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to

act in that gap in between.”

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert RauschenbergMonogram, 1955-59

stuffed goat, tire, paint, mm

Ed Kienholz (1927-1994) was an American installation artist whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. He collaborated with his wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz, from 1972.

George HermsThe Librarian, 1960

Herms is a Los Angeles artist who emerged during the Beat era and is very active today.

George HermsShoe Tree, 1983

George HermsMax and Dorothea, 2002

Arman (1928-2005) was a French artist best known for his "accumulations" and destruction/recomposition of objects.

Alfonso OssorioMirror Between, 1963mixed media assemblage

Alfonso OssorioEGO DNS #3, 1965

mixed media assemblage

John Chamberlain (1927- ) is best known for creating sculptures

from old automobiles (or parts of) that bring the Abstract

Expressionist style of painting into three dimensions.

Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm.

Bettye Saar (1926- ) is known for her work in assemblage. In the late 1960s Saar began collecting images of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom, Little Black Sambo, and other stereotyped (African American) figures from folk culture and advertising. Her daughter, Alison, is followingin her footsteps.

Daniel Spoerri (1930- ) is a Swiss artist and writer. He is best

known for his “snare-pictures,” assemblage art in which he

captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten

by individuals.

“Spoerri doesn’t pretend to create works of art, nor does he

proclaim that his works exalt non-art or anti-art... (They) are

situated at the intersection or art and life.”

Alain Jouffroy, 1961

George Brecht (1926-2008) was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer as well as a professional chemist. He was a key member of, and influence on, Fluxus.

Bern PorterFounds, 1986collage

Bern Porter with Todd TransformerHorizontal Hold, 1985

collage

Bern Porter (1911–2004) contributed to some of the most important scientific innovations of the twentieth century. He worked on the development of the cathode-ray tube (for television), the atomic bomb (with the Manhattan Project), and NASA’s Saturn V Rocket. When the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, in 1945, Porter walked away from his position with the Manhattan Project and, disappointed with his work as a physicist, turned his attention to artistic pursuits. (After) WW II, a flood of visual information spread across the US. Advertisements ... and television promised an easier and happier life through the purchasing of products. For his collages, which he dubbed “Founds,” Porter gathered the waste of this new culture—advertisements, junk mail, instruction booklets, scientific documents, and other material—and turned it into art.

“Trash is the failure of imagination”

Elisabeth Higgins O’ConnerNo Name (Scrap Foot) and No Name (Trash Fists), 2009

Shinique SmithBale Variant Number 0011

2005

anonymouscrocheted grocery store bag shoes

Cathy KasdanKnit 1950’s Outfitgrocery store bags

“The plastic grocery bag came about in the 1950’s along with futuristic optimism about America, so I made a

‘typical’ 1950’s ensemble...”

Phoebe WashburnCOMPESHITSTEM - the new deal, 2009

Subodh GuptaMind shut down, 2008

old utensils8’h x 5.5’ x 7’

(an artist from Argentina)Boar, Dog, Sheepscrap and junk

Donald SuggsAcid-trope Feast Pole, 2008plastic objects, metal armatureca 12’h x16” x 28”

Jason RhodesUno Momento / the theater in my dick, 1996

Jason RhodesMy Brother Brancuzi, 1997

Jason RhodesMy Special Purpose, 2002

Jason RhodesPeaRoe Ramp (From Wastewedge), 2002

Miroslav Tichycamera, 1990’sfound articles including toilet roll, wood spool, shoes

Miroslav Tichyphoto, 1990’s

taken with the above camera

Texts:

William Seitz, the art of Assemblage, MoMA, 1961

Calvin Tompkins, Duchamp: A Biography, Holt Paperbacks,1998

Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues With Marcel Duchamp, Da Capo Press, 1979

Mason Klein, Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention, Jewish Museum, 2009

John P. Jacob, Man Ray: Unconcerned But Not Indifferent, La Fabrica, 2009

Roni Feinstein, The "Junk" Aesthetic: Assemblage of the 1950s and Early 1960s, Whitney Museum, 1989

Sandra Leonard Starr, Lost and Found in California: Four Decades of Assemblage Art, James Corcoran Gallery, 1988

Websites:

Assemblage (art), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblage_(art)

Collage Museum, collagemuseum.com/

MoMA: the Collection, Assemblage, www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10057

the visible trash society (www.visibletrash.net/) "Trash? Hell, we call it free art supplies."