Assemblage

1. Assemblage Visual representation response to City of Glass (Auster)

2. What is Assemblage? A word from the French “joining” It’s a collection of persons or things, a gathering—our movement sessions are an assemblage It’s the act of assembling or the state of being assembled It’s an artistic composition made from scraps, junk, and odds and ends (as of paper, cloth, wood, stone, or metal) It’s the art of making assemblages

3. 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.

4. Some history… Jean Dubuffe’s 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.lazaruscorporation.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.)

5. 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.

6. And… • Marcel Duchamp’s Trois Stoppages Étalon 1913–14 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" The Museum of Modern Art, New York

7. 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

8. And there is Jean Crotti (1878-1958) who in 1916 created… • Le Clown (lead wire, glass eyes, and colored paper attached to glass) (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris)

9. Joseph Cornell • It’s the work of 20th century New York artist Joseph Cornell (1903 - 1972) that has brought such popularity to assemblage. Cornell is America’s 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 exhibit:Joseph 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,

11. 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

12. Defense d'Afficher Object (Don’t display {limelight}) 1939 (140 Kb); Construction, 8 15/16 x 13 15/16 x 2 1/8 in; Collection Denise and Andrew Saul

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. From Sotheby’s 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)

20. 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 Sotheby’s art auction. It sold for $456,750. It is property of the Collection of 7-Eleven, Inc. "Interchange," by Wayne Thiebaud, 1979 (39X26 inches)