Assemblage

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Assemblage

• Visual representation response to
• City of Glass (Auster)

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What is Assemblage?
A word from the French joining Its a
collection of persons or things, a gatheringour
movement sessions are an assemblage Its the
act of assembling or the state of being
assembled Its an artistic composition made from
scraps, junk, and odds and ends (as of paper,
cloth, wood, stone, or metal) Its the art of
making assemblages
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On Assemblage from the gallery of

• Today, assemblage encompasses all works that
  are assembled from found objects or material from
  everyday life. The term is frequently associated
  with a very Bauderlarian sensibility in its
  expression of modern life and, in particular, of
  urban culture.

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Some history
Jean Dubuffes early 1950s work is noted as the
beginning of assemblage art because he titled his
collage arrangement of actual butterflies,
assemblages d'empreintes. http//www.lazaruscor
poration.co.uk
Jean Dubuffet French, b. Le Havre, 1901 -
1985  Butterfly-Wing Figure, OCTOBER
1953 Butterfly wings and gouache on paperboard 9
7/8 x 7 5/16 in. (25.0 x 18.5 cm.)
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But

• The found object works of Pablo Picasso
  preceded Dubuffet. The Tate Gallery in the U.K.
  refers to Picasso's Cubist constructions, (three
  dimensional works that he began to make from
  1912) as early examples of assemblage.
• Still Life 1914 is made from scraps of wood and a
  length of tablecloth fringing, glued together and
  painted.

25.4 x 45.7 x 9.2 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
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And
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Marcel Duchamps Trois Stoppages Étalon 191314
  assembled 3 threads glued to 3 painted canvas
  strips, each mounted on a glass panel three wood
  slats shaped along one edge to match the curves
  of the threads the whole fitted into a wood box,
  11 1/8 x 50 7/8 x 9"

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And

• Kurt Schwitters (1887-1949) experimented
  assemblages - which he called Merzbild, which in
  1919 he defined as
• The word Merz denotes essentially the
  combination, for artistic purposes, of all
  conceivable materials, and, technically, the
  principle of the equal distribution of the
  individual materials ... A perambulator wheel,
  wire-netting, string and cotton wool are factors
  having equal rights with paint.
  (www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk)

Bild mit Korbring (Picture with Basket Ring) 1938
(MOMA, New York.) Assemblage wood, rattan
ring, paper, iron and steel nails on wood, 15 x
11 3/4" (38.1 x 29.8 cm)
Merzbild 46 A. Das Kegelbild (Merzpicture 46 A.
The Skittle Picture), 1921 Assemblage of wood,
oil, metal, and board on board, with artist's
frame
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And there is Jean Crotti (1878-1958) who in 1916
created
(Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris)

• Le Clown (lead wire, glass eyes, and colored
  paper attached to glass)

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Joseph Cornell

• Its the work of 20th century New York artist
  Joseph Cornell (1903 - 1972) that has brought
  such popularity to assemblage. Cornell is
  Americas salute to the Surrealism movement.
• Joseph Cornell almost never left New York City,
  yet his works transport viewers to worlds far
  beyond the mundane realities of his urban,
  terrestrial life. It is in between the spaces of
  surreal fantasy and the invocation of an
  infinite, temporal expanse that Cornell truly
  captures your imagination. (from the
  exhibitJoseph Cornell Navigating the
  Imagination Peabody Essex Museum in Salem,
  Massachusetts)
• His use of boxes has given the art a standard
  feature. You will use a box or frame to construct
  your assemblage.
• Make a box
• Use a found wooden box
• Use a found small cabinet drawer

Untitled (Grand Hôtel de l'Observatoire), 1954.
Box construction and collage, 18 5/16 x 12 15/16
x 3 7/8 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
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(No Transcript)
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• Space Object Box "Little Bear, etc." motif,
  mid-1950s- early 1960s. Box construction and
  collage, 11 x 17 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. Solomon R.
  Guggenheim Museum

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• Defense d'Afficher Object (Dont display
  limelight) 1939 (140 Kb) Construction, 8 15/16
  x 13 15/16 x 2 1/8 in Collection Denise and
  Andrew Saul

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• Object (Abeilles) (bees) 1940 (190 Kb)
  Construction, 9 1/8 x 14 1/8 x 3 7/16 in
  Collection Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Wiseman,
  Beverly Hills, CA

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• Untitled 1942 (150 Kb) Construction, 13 1/8 x
  10 x 3 1/2 in Private collection, New York

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• Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall)
  1945-46 (110 Kb) Construction, 20 1/2 x 16 x 3
  1/2 in Collection Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Bergman,
  Chicago

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• Untitled (Pink Palace) c. 1946-48 (160 Kb)
  Construction, 10 x 16 7/16 x 3 3/4 in Museum of
  Modern Art, San Francisco

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• Untitled (Hotel du Cygne) c. 1952-55 (170 Kb)
  Construction, 19 3/16 x 12 3/4 x 4 1/2 in
  Castelli Feigen Corcoran

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• Untitled (Apollinaris) c. 1954 (170 Kb)
  Construction, 15 15/16 x 9 3/4 x 4 3/8 in
  Collection Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Bergman, Chicago

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• From Sothebys 2001 auction catalog
• Lot 195, "Construction II (Custodian, Silent
  Dedication to MM)," by Cornell, is a homage to
  Marilyn Monroe even though the objects in the
  mixed media construction do not directly relate
  to the actress. The excellent work measures 18 by
  12 by 5 inches and was executed in 1963. It has
  been consigned by the Collection of 7-Eleven,
  Inc., and has an estimate of 100,000 to
  150,000. It sold for 92,750

Josep0h Cornell Construction II (Custodian,
Silent Dedication to MM (1963)
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I had to include this city art.

• This Thiebaud oil on canvas was estimated to sell
  for between 180,000 to 220,000 at a 2001
  Sothebys art auction. It sold for 456,750. It
  is property of the Collection of 7-Eleven, Inc.

"Interchange," by Wayne Thiebaud, 1979 (39X26
inches)