October 14 – December 4, 2011
The International Collage Center (ICC) is a non-profit art organization dedicated to the study and appreciation of Collage and its related forms, including Assemblage, Photomontage and Mixed-Media Installation. Based in Milton, Pennsylvania, the focus of the ICC is a permanent lending and research collection, accompanied by a study center and archive for academic research. These resources will be available to members of the public for both educational and curatorial programming. In addition to the permanent display of the collection in Pennsylvania we will be actively working with national and international partners to exhibit works from the ICC collection.
“Remix” co-curated by Founder & Artistic Director Pavel Zoubok and Director Rachael Lawe is a survey exhibition featuring selections from the ICC’s permanent collection as well as loans from prominent artists and collectors. “Remix” highlights the initial phase of the collection, which is being established through generous donations by leading artists, collectors and arts professionals. This exhibition at Bucknell’s Samek Art Gallery will be the first installment of a national tour of university museums and galleries over the next two years.
The narrative of Collage is woven through the history of modern and contemporary art. It is an expansive and encyclopedic concept with its own unique lexicon of forms and values. The ICC Collection gathers together the diverse fragments of this rich artistic tradition to create vital links between historical and contemporary practices, to “remix” the narrative of Collage.
With a varied history that reaches back through centuries of artistic expression, it was within the twentieth century that Collage emerged as a major force through a range of artistic movements. The term developed from the French word coller meaning to glue or stick, with Picasso and Braque using the term papier collé to describe a revolutionary approach to art making. This is the narrowest definition of the term, which quickly expanded to include diverse practices such as Assemblage and Photomontage. Over time these terms came to signify much more than a simple art technique, but represented an approach, philosophy and perception of the modern world. The terms were also inextricably bound with the concept of the Avant-garde, beginning with Cubism, Constructivism, Dada and Surrealism. Collage continued to be a core catalyst in later art movements including Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art and Fluxus. Modernity was characterized by a shift and reappraisal of the boundaries between life and art; Collage was a vital part of this process. It included a vast array of materials from the quotidian to the precious and subjects both universal and personal. Collage conveyed immediacy and intimacy both in its production and in the viewer’s response. Found images and objects, culled from daily life, were recast and reimagined in singular works of art. Collage continues to be a forum for ingenuity and invention in contemporary art practice.
The expansive nature of Collage has resulted in a field of study that frequently eludes definition. Narratives of Collage are often subsumed by the larger histories of specific artists and movements. The ICC Collection and “Remix” explores the history of Collage with a decidedly inclusive vision, celebrating the past while profiling emerging artists who continue to expand the discourse.
“Remix” explores many of the dominant themes of Collage and mixed-media, including; the long-standing relationship between Collage and Poetry, the use of Collage as an extension of painting both in figuration and abstraction, Collage as a form of cultural, social and political resistance and Collage as an expression of the diaristic and archival impulse. Materials and process have always played a central role in Collage. Artists employ all manner of printed ephemera to explore a broad range of subjects such as mapping, commercial culture, appropriation and technology. Equally important is the question of scale, with many artists challenging the spatial and material boundaries of this traditionally intimate art form.
The visual culture of Collage is more relevant today than ever, asserting itself not only as a rich formal language, but also as a mode of perception. Fragmentation, fracture, sampling, appropriation, hybrids, and layering are all fundamental concepts that define the field of Collage. These terms have become a fundamental part of our collective consciousness, particularly in the ever-expanding realm of Cyberspace, which is rapidly asserting itself as the newest frontier in Collage. The vital links between the historical past and our technology-driven present are central to the ICC’s mission and to the spirit of this exhibition.
Guest Curators: Pavel Zoubok (Founder & Artistic Director) and Rachael Lawe (Director), International Collage Center
Programming:
October 28, 2011
5:30 pm
Forum, 2nd floor of the Elaine Langone Center
Panel Discussion discussants to be announced at a later date
November 14, 2011
7 pm
Campus Theatre
Market Street, Lewisburg, PA
Shorts related to the current show:
- Portraits of three artists included in the “Remix” exhibition, Joseph Cornell, May Wilson and Ray Johnson
- Cornell 1965, Edited by Lawrence Jordan, 1978, 9 minutes
- Woo who? May Wilson, Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild, 1970, 33 minutes
- How to Draw A Bunny, Directed by John W. Walter, 2002, 90 mins
For further information contact Cynthia Peltier at peltier@bucknell.edu