Art of Assemblage

Assemblage art traces its origin to Pablo Picasso who created his first “assemblage” Guitar in 1913 with cardboard and sheet-metal, although it is later in 1953 that the term was coined by surrealist artist Jean Dubuffet. Assemblage involves the transformation of found objects and materials into art by assembling them using glue or welding. The technique was a radically new way of making sculpture which turned its back not only on traditional carving and casting practices but also challenged the artistic views of the establishment at the time.

Following in this tradition, the artists featured in Art of Assemblage revealed the often unseen beauty of simple day-to-day objects by salvaging and transforming what might have been discarded as junk by others. The resulting sculptures and collages — which are not sculpted in the traditional sense but constructed, “combined”, and weaved — were curious and surprising, often repetitive and almost obsessive. Seen together, these artworks seem to blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture, the worthy and the unworthy, artifice and truthfulness.