Collage facts for kids

A collage composed of magazine articles and pictures

Collage is regarded as a work of visual arts made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. Use of this technique made its dramatic appearance among oil paintings in the early 20th century as an art form of groundbreaking novelty.

There are many different mediums of Collage, some are listed below:

• Collage in painting
• Collage in architecture
• Collage with wood
• Collage in music
• Digital collage
• Literary collage
• Decoupage
• Photomontage

An artistic collage work may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs, and such, glued to a piece of paper or canvas.

Techniques of collage were first used at the time of the invention of paper in China around 200 BC. The use of collage, however, remained very limited until the 10th century in Japan, when calligraphers began to apply glued paper, using texts on surfaces, when writing their poems.

The technique of collage appeared in medieval Europe during the 13th century. Gold leaf panels started to be applied in Gothic cathedrals around the 15th and 16th centuries. Gemstones and other precious metals were applied to religious images, icons, and also, to coats of arms.

In the 19th century, collage methods also were used among hobbyists for memorabilia (i.e. applied to photo albums) and books (i.e. Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Spitzweg).

The term collage derives from the French "coller" meaning "glue". This term was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.

Images for kids

• 

  Kurt Schwitters, Das Undbild, 1919, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

• 

  Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90x144 cm, Staatliche Museum, Berlin.

• 

  Pablo Picasso, 1913–14, Head (Tête), cut and pasted colored paper, gouache and charcoal on paperboard, 43.5 x 33 cm, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

• 

  Peter Blake, On the Balcony, 1955–1957, collage, mixed-media, Tate Gallery

• 

  Pablo Picasso, Compotier avec fruits, violon et verre, 1912

• 

  Georges Braque, Fruitdish and Glass, 1912, papier collé and charcoal on paper

• 

  Jean Metzinger, Au Vélodrome, 1912, oil, sand and collage on canvas, Peggy Guggenheim Collection

• 

  Juan Gris, Le Petit Déjeuner, 1914, gouache, oil, crayon on cut-and-pasted printed paper on canvas, Museum of Modern Art

See also

In Spanish: Collage para niños