Assemblage

Assemblage

An assemblage is an artistic arrangement of pre-existing elements.

The practice of assemblage in art traces its roots back to Pablo Picasso's cubist constructions, which marked the inception of his three-dimensional works in 1912. One early example is his creation "Still Life" from 1914, composed of various wood scraps and a piece of tablecloth fringe, ingeniously glued together and then painted. Picasso continued to employ assemblage intermittently throughout his artistic journey.

In 1918, the Dada artist Kurt Schwitters pioneered the use of scavenged materials to craft collages and assemblages, coining the term "merz" for this technique. Assemblage also served as the foundation for numerous surrealist artworks. Inspired by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud on the realms of the unconscious and dreams, surrealist artists frequently amalgamated improbable combinations of found objects, giving rise to surprising and disconcerting sculptures.

35 results found for "Assemblage"

video

Thornton Dial

American artist Thornton Dial became an international art world sensation at 60. He started his career many decades earlier, making toys out of junk. Today, he is considered one of the great artists of his generation.

Thornton Dial
article

Inner Visions 02

For the second instalment of Inner Visions, Larry Ossei-Mensah introduces a series of unprecedented works by New York-based artists Tau Lewis and Ludovic Nkoth.

Inner Visions 02
Artist

Barry McGee

Barry McGee (he/him) was born in 1966 in San Francisco, USA. He continues to live and work in the Bay Area.

Barry McGee
Artist

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami (she/her) was born in 1993 in Gutu, Zimbabwe, and now lives and works in London, UK.

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami
Artist

Arghavan Khosravi

Arghavan Khosravi (she/her) was born in Shahr-e-kord, Iran in 1984. She now lives and works in New York, USA.

Arghavan Khosravi
Artist

Patrick Quarm

Patrick Quarm (he/him) was born in 1988 in Sekondi, Ghana, and now lives and works in Takoradi, Ghana.

Patrick Quarm
Artist

Sola Olulode

Sola Olulode was born in 1996 and raised in South London, where she continues to live and work.

Sola Olulode
Artist

Isshaq Ismail

Isshaq Ismail was born in 1989 in Accra, Ghana. He uses his art as a tool to make polemic statements, working in a style he describes as infantile semi-abstraction.

Isshaq Ismail
Artist

Claudia Comte

Swiss artist Claudia Comte was born in 1983 in Lausanne, and has since relocated to the outskirts of Basel.

Claudia Comte
Artist

Huma Bhabha

Huma Bhabha was born in 1962 in Karachi, Pakistan, and now lives and works in New York, USA.

Huma Bhabha
Artist

Angel Otero

Angel Otero (he/him) was born in 1981 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He now splits his time between the island and his studio in New York City.

Angel Otero
Print

The Earring

Arghavan Khosravi threads cultural commentary through Surrealist beauty in The Earring. The assemblage print edition makes use of recurring motifs seen throughout the artist’s two and three-dimensional practice: ropes, obscured facial features, ball and chains, all framed within an overriding beauty and delicately painted details. Khosravi spins influences from Persian miniatures, textiles, Greco-Roman figures, merging to reflect restrictions experienced by the artist in Iran, where she was born.

The Earring
Print

Parallax

New and old collide in absurdist rewrites of still life traditions by Christian Rex van Minnen.Parallax – van Minnen’s first print release in more than 10 years and first ever timed edition – is based on an oil on linen original, in which he employs Venetian painting techniques that predate him by several hundred years. The work’s title references the compositional logic underpinning its assemblage of foliage, gummy sweets and embryo.Available to all, for 24 hours only, the collaboration fulfils van Minnen’s desire to offer a broader audience the opportunity to collect his work.

Parallax
Sculpture

Dhalia

Healing via making, Tau Lewis stitches together memory, history and the Black imaginary.
The Church of Mantic Plants is a series of 20 unique sculptures stitched by hand in Lewis’ Brooklyn studio. Every work has been named individually, in this case — Dhalia.

Dhalia

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    Parra's studio, with Parra at the centre, his back to the camera as he works on the large painting takes centre stage, showing a faceless blue woman in a striped dress, painted in red, purple, blue and teal. The studio is full of brightly coloured paints, with a large window on the right and a patterned rug across the floor under the painting.