John Heartfield, 1891 - 1968
(John Hertfeld) German artist, worked with Hannah Hoch on the Berlin Dada Club.
Voiced his views through ‘photomontage’, a type of collage that uses photography. Produced work for numerous media, including illustration magazines and book covers.
‘Adolf, the superman’
One of Heartfield’s most famous collages, produced as a poster, depicting Adolf Hitler with a belly full of gold. This political piece, among others, almost saw the artists assassinated, though he managed to escape. This work shows the artist’s views on Hitler’s claims and policies, by depicting him as greedy and nonsensical. We see the dictator ‘full of money’ and being named as ‘the superman’ gives emphasis to the fact his claims for superiority were fake and delusional.
‘The Executioner and Justice’
This dark piece of photography was produced by Heartfield after the events of the Reichstag fire. The piece shows a haunting image of a personified ‘justice’, wounded and bleeding and unable to see or hear or speak. It's a deeply provoking image, protesting the political nature of Germany at that time. I actually think this work is really ahead of its time, and unfortunately could still be relevant today.
Peter Kennard
Born 1949, British
Produces work based in political art, including photomontage.
‘Broken Missile’ 1980, now in the Tate museum, london.
This poster has been used in books, newspapers and posters for multiple political protests. It’s powerful in symbolising the power of peace, especially in a time where the threat of world war 3 and nuclear missiles were rife during the cold war.
This is a page from Peter Kennard’s book ‘Unofficial War Artist’. A disturbing collage produced in reflection of the Hiroshima bombing, now displayed in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.its a combined image of a skeleton and the iconic image of the mushroom cloud from the devastating Atomic Bomb.Its representative of the horror and death the incident caused, using just a single skeleton but alongside the information that 140000 people were killed by the bomb, so as a viewer, I’m drawn to imagine the 140000 skeletons, a terrifying reality. It also brings humanity into the incident, we don't just see the explosion, we see a human incorporated into the image.
Hannah Hoch
1889-1978, German artist.
Member of the group of artists known as the Berlin Dada group. She explored aspects of gender within her political works, especially the roles of women and the inequality during her time. This is what made her somewhat unique among her mostly male peers.
‘Grotesk’, 1963
(Grotesque) is a collage using photomontage to combine the imagery of feminine and masculine traits. There are an elderly male’s eyes on the thighs of a young female, perhaps this is symbolic of predatory behaviour. The artist is known for combining features of gender in her work, and perhaps by naming this peace ‘grotesque’ she is prompting the viewer to question what is it that really is grotesque, the female body? The leering or luring? The idea of a female having masculine traits?
‘Die Braut’ (Pandora), 1927,
Meaning ‘the bride’, this collage combines watercolour, gouache and images of a bride and groom, with a juxtaposition of a dolls head over the bride. I feel this piece really summed up a lot of the artist’s views on gender, because when I see issues of gender inequality that are still relevant today. The concept that a woman must remain looking ‘young’ and ‘youthful’ is symbolised by the bewildered ‘baby’ faced bride. They're surrounded by symbols such as ‘original sin’ (the snake and apple), and infants, all expressing the restrictions and expectations placed on women.
Martha Rosler
1943-current, American artist
An artist that works across many media, with focuses on feminism and political protest.
‘My artwork is a communicative act’, ‘a form of an utterance, a way to open conversation’
Photo Op, 2004
One of the artist's most well known works, this piece is a reflection of the traits views regarding the war in Iraq during that time. The artist was previously known for her outspoken views on the war in Vietnam, and uses her work here to show the similarities of the situations. The scenes of war outside a modern home, featuring the repeated images of the ignorant model in the foreground posing in front of her phone speaks volumes about the strong emotions the artist has in regards to society’s outlook on the political travesties of that time. The layers of imagery in this work takes us through layers of a moment in time, even the flip phones are reminiscent of the early 00’s.
Makeup Hands Up, from the original series ‘House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home’ c. 1967-1972
This is a work of photomontage, classically ‘cut and paste’ imagery from the original series of the artist's work. The colour image showing a woman applying makeup, and a black and white image superimposed over the woman’s eye, depicting a woman at gunpoint with her hands up. This work has so much power in its context, and the contrast of imagery is striking. It speaks volumes about the artists anger and frustrations when it comes to feminism, class, ignorance and violence.
The grainy imagery of the pictures and the fashion style of the woman applying the makeup is representative of the era it was produced, which adds to the reflection in viewing the work because it’s a relative issue even today. It’s also interesting to look at ‘traditional’ types of collage because it’s raw and not digitally perfected.
Other collage:
‘Mask XIII’ 2006
John Stezaker
A British artist, John Stezaker created a series of collage works titled ‘Mask’, and uses themes of surrealism in his work. I like this work in particularly because of the way the postcard of the old ruins has been inverted to simulate the contours of the woman’s face. It’s a contrast in itself, from a young beautiful actress to crumbled, skeletal building ruins. It’s haunting, and being a ‘mask’ itself adds a level of emotion and humanity to the concept.
‘The Lotus Eater’, 1939
Eileen Agar
This artist focuses the majority of her work within surrealism, expressed in this collage that she based on the Greek myth of the lotus flower, which the artist wrote as a note accompanying the title: “Lotophagi: A fabulous people living on the Lotus-flower, the effect of which was to make the eater forget his own country and desire to live in the Lotus-land of his own choosing. The legend was the origin of [this] collage”.
The art includes painting with various mediums including ink, and an illustration of a primitive mask pasted over the top.
‘Rainbow of 2020’ , 2020
There were several layers of development to my final outcome, as I experimented with the idea of using digital mediums. I had initially wanted to create the ‘rainbow’ on a real mask, but thought that it would be a waste of personal protective equipment. Given that when the pandemic of COVID 19 first started, there was a desperate shortage of PPE, creating artwork with it seemed insensitive. This then developed into the idea of using digital technology to create a collage, to further preserve wasting resources.
I wanted to reflect on the rainbow, a symbol of hope used initially in the ‘pride’ movement for the LGBQT community, but adopted by the uk nation during lockdown in 2020. But I wanted to adapt it further to reflect issues of the year that extended past COVID. I used the face icon from the government’s various posters on protecting against COVID, but I wanted to make the point that there were many other serious issues, that the government was failing to care about as adequately. I included COVID in the ‘rainbow’ to show that the issues around it were of equal importance and gravity. These issues include: global warming, sparking wildfires, the ‘black lives matter’ movement against racism across the world, the NHS, and its lack of funding causing immense strain in the crisis, and homelessness, mental health issues and drug abuse.
I wanted to create a background to the central image to break up the space, but in contrast to the rainbow I chose more subtle grey scale copies of the government's slogan ‘stay alert, control the virus, save lives’. I wanted to make sure the image of the icon of the man wearing a mask was recognisable from the campaign by including the slogan. I also felt that this would emphasise my point further, that there is a lack of awareness, control and consideration for life across all the issues represented in the ‘rainbow’.
I chose to create an actual collage with ‘photomontage’ because it appealed to my creativity. However I initially struggled with my own perspectives on making the work ‘good enough’ or ‘perfect’. Reflecting on my research of other artists and their collages helped me to focus on expressing what I wanted to express in a way I found adequate. I appreciate the immense thought that goes into creating collage work, particularly when considering positioning of each image with colour combinations. If anything, actually found it quite intimidating to try and let go of restraint and control, and allow ideas to develop. Some of the collages I have researched range from more relaxed approaches to more thought-out and deliberate processes. Though I feel that collage art kind of demands both elements. It looks deceptively simple and in this modern age, maybe even primitive, but in trying to create my own it was difficult to not over think and yet put in enough thought to make the piece meaningful. I think that’s why artists that use collage rely on contrast in their images, to create boldness and striking expression in what could otherwise be seen as a simplistic medium. The use of juxtaposition is essential when creating contrast, because visually, as humans, we tend to pay attention to things that don’t ‘fit’ together. When playing with images we can create meaning by combining images that don’t belong together, in symbolic ways. It isn’t too dissimilar to traditional communication, for example combining symbols to create language (thinking hieroglyphs and traditional alphabet), reusing images to convey messages that the artist means to express. However, this art form goes further by having seemingly unlimited resources at an artist’s disposal. And with that comes careful choice and consideration from the artist as to what images are most controversial and contradictory, what can be combined and yet remain opposing in order to invite the viewers into new perspectives of familiar images.
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