A fine art collage is a piece of art created with the intention of expressing an idea or an experience, implying a relationship, or demonstrating an aesthetic form. Collage is primarily a visual art form that combines a variety of forms and unifying elements into a single work. The most common method is to arrange and paste the individual elements onto paper or canvas. When a collage succeeds in expressing an idea or eliciting an emotional response, it is considered fine art. A fine art collage is one in which the work speaks to the viewer.
Fine art is frequently depicted as otherworldly, as if removed from everyday concerns. Rembrandt painted for a living, Shakespeare wrote to fill theaters, and ancient Greek potters created everyday urns. A collage can be made on commission, for advertising purposes, or simply to bring a room together. This type of art can be made out of a variety of materials.
For hundreds of years, artisans have embellished written or painted works with decorative cutouts, jewels, and metallic embossing. Collage was more of a folk art or craft in the nineteenth century, used in the creation of scrapbooks or to adorn household items. Collage did not become popular as an artistic technique until the early twentieth century. It was around this time that what is now known as fine art collage first appeared.
The boundaries between painting and sculpture were tested in some of the first modern collage works. Elements were placed on the canvas to interrupt or extend the plane of the canvas, as well as to provide texture contrast. Fine art collage gained immediacy and temporal dimension incorporating photography and items from popular culture. Individual elements were easily identifiable and had meaning in and of themselves, as well as in relation to the overall work.
Through the use of other media, fine art collage has continued to evolve and find new ways of expression. Images and excerpts from other works are used in literary collages to advance a story or promote a point of view. In their work, documentary filmmakers frequently use collages of historical photographs and documents. A fine art collage can be a tribute to a favorite film genre or an investigation of a musical work’s theme or technique. A traditional canvas collage could be depicted using newly developed materials and processes.