Collages by Norma Cole

Just because it is February, post-valentine's day, and because it is always a pleasure to contemplate collages by Norma Cole, here are two pieces for your delectation!



Untitled, Norma Cole

Collage
Pronunciation:  /kɒˈlɑːʒ/

Etymology:  French, lit. ‘pasting, gluing’

An abstract form of art in which photographs, pieces of paper, newspaper cuttings, string, etc., are placed in juxtaposition and glued to the pictorial surface; such a work of art. Also transf., fig., and attrib.

1919   W. Lewis Caliph's Design i. 26   He..gradually drifts into the habit (a sort of progressive collage) of bringing his lack of painter's prowess and his nice feeling for art together.

1935   D. Gascoyne Short Surv. Surrealism iv. 66   Poems can be composed from random newspaper-cuttings (‘collage’ poems).

1935   D. Gascoyne Short Surv. Surrealism iv. 73   Max Ernst, with..his astonishing books of ‘collage’ pictures.

1935   D. Gascoyne Short Surv. Surrealism iv. 133   Parallel with these features..may be placed collage and frottage.

1936   J. Deschin New Ways in Photogr. 181   Before embarking on the making of a photomontage, it should be understood that the term refers to a photographic process entirely and not to the scissors-and-paste method (known as collage) practiced by some in the name of photomontage.

1936   H. Read Surrealism 62   The invention of the collage by Picasso or Braque—the work of art made of any old pieces of string or newspaper.

1937   W. H. Auden & L. MacNeice Lett. from Iceland 21   Press cuttings, gossip, maps, statistics, graphs; I don't intend to do the thing by halves... It is a collage that you're going to read.

1938   L. MacNeice Mod. Poetry viii. 144   The early Eliot's diction..is often a collage of other people's writing.

1939   Archit. Rev. 85 301   The accompanying ‘collages’ demonstrate a new use for the Object, particularly the Found Object (l'objet trouvé of surrealist invention).

1956   R. Ironside in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 285   The technique of ‘collage’ would be improperly described as a photographic process.

1957   Observer 15 Sept. 13/7   His assured collage paintings.

1957   Observer 15 Sept. 13/7   Robyn Denny..has discovered new possibilities in collage.

1961   Times 4 Aug. 3/4   When calling to mind a picture which is a collage-painting the fact that it is a collage is almost the first thing that we recollect.

1969   Sat. Rev. 28 June 56/3   Berio's Sinfonia provided an excellent example of the ‘collage’ which some composers like to practice nowadays.

--courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary






Untitled, Norma Cole