Collage, << kuh LAHZH, >> is a picture or design made by gluing pieces of paper or other materials onto a canvas or another surface. The term comes from the French word coller, meaning to paste or to glue.
Most artists use such common items as photographs and ticket stubs to make collages. The pasted materials may be combined with lines and colors painted by the artist. By arranging the materials in a certain way, an artist can create strange or witty effects not possible in traditional painting.
Some painters use collage to develop color compositions. For example, an artist can move a piece of colored paper over parts of a picture until the color is where the artist wants it. Art students use collage techniques to study proportion and color relationships. Many elementary schools include collage in their art courses.
Modern artists began experimenting with collage about 1912. Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Pablo Picasso created paintings onto which they pasted pieces of paper, oilcloth, or wallpaper. In The Bottle of Anis del Mono, Gris used pieces of newspaper and a liqueur bottle label. Beginning about 1920, such painters as Max Ernst cut out book and magazine illustrations for collages. They pasted parts of one picture onto sections of another to create mysterious fantasies.
