Sticks & Stones: Collage

Each installment of our Sticks & Stones series presents the history, evolution, and unusual uses of a single material. You can find our article about collage at my.meural.com/editorial/22.

The word ‘collage’ comes from the French verb coller, meaning ‘to glue.’ While the idea of gluing shreds of paper together was certainly nothing new, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were among the first to consider the practice worthy of being considered fine art. Around 1910, the two artists—who were, incidentally, also good friends—began experimenting with the idea of assemblage, or creating sculptural compositions with two- and three-dimensional materials. But it was not until the summer of 1912, when the two were working in the South of France, that Braque had a breakthrough. Wandering through the city of Avignon one day, Braque spotted a roll of wallpaper with a faux wood grain pattern in a store’s window display. He purchased the roll, but didn’t even think of it until several weeks later, when Picasso was away in Paris and he was alone in the studio. Braque incorporated cut pieces of the wood grain paper into a series of charcoal drawings; Fruit Dish and Glass are acknowledged to be the first of what he would later refer to as his papier collé (pasted paper) works. Braque later said, “After having made the papier collé, I felt a great shock and it was an even greater shock to Picasso when I showed it to him.” The pair excitedly coined the word “collage” to describe pieces composed from glued-together scraps of paper, newsprint, and fabric. Both considered collage to be a cheeky and unexpected intermingling of high and low art.