Montage is the technique where different images are combined to create a single new composition. Montage is similar to collage. Collage is a technique of art production, primarily used in
the visual arts, where the artwork is made from an assemblage of different
forms, thus creating a new whole.
A collage may sometimes include newspaper clippings,
ribbons, bits of colored or handmade papers, portions of other artwork or
texts, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or
canvas.
The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this
technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form
of novelty. 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.
Kurt Schwitters, Das Undbild, 1919, Staatsgalerie Stuttgar
Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the
Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted
papers, Staatliche Museum, Berlin.
Jane Frank, "Plum Point" (1964), wood collage
The wood collage is a type that emerged somewhat later than paper collage. Much wood collage art is considerably smaller in scale, framed and hung as a painting would be. It usually features pieces of wood, wood shavings, or scraps,
assembled on a canvas (if there is painting involved), or on a wooden
board. Such framed, picture-like, wood-relief collages offer the artist an opportunity to explore the qualities of depth, natural color, and textural
variety inherent in the material, while drawing on and taking advantage
of the language, conventions, and historical resonances that arise from
the tradition of creating pictures to hang on walls. The technique of
wood collage is also sometimes combined with painting and other media in
a single work of art.
Decoupage is a type of collage usually defined as a craft. It is the process of placing a picture into an object for decoration.
Decoupage can involve adding multiple copies of the same image, cut and
layered to add apparent depth. The picture is often coated with varnish
or some other sealant for protection. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage
Henri Matisse, Blue Nude II, 1952, gouache découpée,
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Photomontage is the process and result of making a composite
photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite
picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back
into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does
not use film, is realized today through image-editing software. This latter
technique is referred to by professionals as "compositing", and in
casual usage is often called "photoshopping".
The first and most famous mid-Victorian photomontage (then
called combination printing) was "The Two Ways of Life" (1857) by
Oscar Rejlander, followed shortly by the pictures of photographer Henry Peach
Robinson such as "Fading Away" (1858). These works actively set out
to challenge the then-dominant painting and theatrical tableau vivants.
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Fading Away, a combination print by Henry Peach Robinson,
1858
Fantasy photomontaged postcards were popular in the Victorian
and Edwardian periods.The preeminent producer in this period
was the Bamforh Company, in Holmfirth, West Yorksihire, and New York. But the
high point came during World War I, when photographers in France, Great
Britain, Germany, Austria, and Hungary produced a profusion of postcards
showing soldiers on one plane and lovers, wives, children, families, or parents
on another. Many of the early examples of fine-art photomontage consist of
photographed elements superimposed on watercolours, a combination returned to
by (e.g.) George Grosz in about 1915. He was part of the Dada (1) movement in
Berlin which was instrumental in making montage into a modern art-form. They
first coined the term "photomontage" at the end of the war, around
1918 or 1919.
(1) Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European
avant-garde in the early twentieth century. It began in Zurich, Switzerland in
1916, spreading to Berlin shortly thereafter. The movement primarily involved
visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and
graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of
the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. In addition to
being anti-war, Dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political affinities with
the radical left.
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The other major exponents were John Heartfield, Hannah Höch,
Kurt Schwitters, Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader. Individual photos combined
together to create a new subject or visual image proved to be a powerful tool
for the Dadists protesting World War I and the interests that they believed
inspired the war. Photomontage survived Dada and was a technique inherited and
used by European Surrealists such as Salvador DalÃ. The world's first
retrospective show of photomontage was held in Germany in 1931. A later term
coined in Europe was "photocollage"; which usually referred to large
and ambitious works that added typography and brushwork or even actual objects stuck
to the photomontage. The pioneering techniques of the early photomontage
artists were co-opted by the advertising industry from the late 1920s onwards.
A 1950 photomontage by Grete Stern
Richard Hamilton, John McHale, Just What Is It That Makes
Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? 1956, collage
Romare Bearden, The Calabash, collage, 1970, Library of
Congress
Creating a photomontage has, for the most part, become
easier with the advent of computer software such as Adobe Photoshop (graphics
editing program), Pixel image editor, and GIMP (image retouching and editing
tool). These programs make the changes digitally, allowing for faster workflow
and more precise results. They also mitigate mistakes by allowing the artist to
"undo" errors. Yet some artists are pushing the boundaries of digital
image editing to create extremely time-intensive compositions that rival the
demands of the traditional arts. The current trend is to create pictures that
combine painting, theatre, illustration and graphics in a seamless photographic
whole.
Digital collage is the technique of using computer tools in
collage creation to encourage chance associations of disparate visual elements
and the subsequent transformation of the visual results through the use of
electronic media. It is commonly used in the creation of digital art.
A 3D Collage is the art of putting altogether 3-Dimensional
objects such as rocks, beads, buttons, coins or even soil to form a new whole
or a new object. 3D collage is often one of the infamous kinds of collage.
Examples of these can be a houses, bead circles, etc.
Mosaic is the art of putting together or assembling of small
pieces of paper, tiles, marble, stones, etc. They are often found in
cathedrals, churches, temples as a spiritual significance of interior
design.Small pieces, normally roughly quadratic, of stone or glass of different
colors, known as tesserae, (diminutive tessellae), are used to create a pattern
or picture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage
I created some examples of photo montage using some quotes and images.
