What Is Assemblage Art? History of Assemblage Art and Notable Assemblage Artists Examples. Found Art Joseph Cornell Robert Rauschenberg Louise Nevelson. Contemporary Assemblage Shop Custom Altered Art & Gifts: Altered Books Custom Wedding Supplies Pet Memorials Shrines and Altars

Assemblage is related to “Found Art.” The term found art describes art created from the
undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because
they already have a mundane, utilitarian function. As mentioned, Marcel Duchamp was the originator
of this in the early twentieth-century.

Found art derives significance from the designation placed upon it by the artist. The context into
which it is placed (e.g. a gallery or museum) is usually also a highly relevant factor. The idea of
dignifying commonplace objects in this way was originally a shocking challenge to the accepted
distinction between what was considered art as opposed to not art.

Found art, however, has to have the artist's input, at the very least an idea about it, i.e. the artist's
designation of the object as art, which is nearly always reinforced with a title. There is mostly also
some degree of modification of the object, although not to the extent that it cannot be recognized.
The modification may lead to it being designated a "modified", "interpreted" or "adapted" found
object.

However, Assemblage is distinguished by the fact that the art arises from the placement of multiple
objects, which might be more highly modified, in a way that the whole is greater than the sum of the
parts. Found Art is more of an ironic way for the artist to poke fun at the concept of art – it has never
really escaped its genesis as a Dadaist joke.

Examples of Assemblage Artists:

Joseph Cornell (1903 - 1972)

Joseph Cornell was an American artist whose assemblage work primarily took the form of box
sculptures - found objects arranged in glass fronted wooden cabinets.
Cornell used broken fragments of more delicate items, producing a nostalgic atmosphere. The
seemingly irrational juxtaposition of these objects drew on surrealist ideas and techniques - an
unsurprising association since Cornell was certainly on good terms with many of the members of
the Surrealist movement who fled to America during the Second World War.

More about Joseph Cornell: http://www.artnet.com/library/01/0195/T019548.asp
More about Joseph Cornell: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/ftptoc/cornell_ext.html

Robert Rauschenberg (1925 - present)

Rauschenberg is an American artist born in 1925. Although historically associated with the Pop Art
movement, his work has progressed and developed from before that time right up to today. He has
worked in a number of different media but the assemblages he produced from the 50s to the 80s -
which he called "combines" - are of most interest to myself.

Rauschenberg used discarded objects such as car tires and license plates, stuffed animals, doors,
bed quilts, electric light fixtures and other urban debris, and combined them with painted surfaces.

More about Robert Rauschenberg: http://www.haberarts.com/rschberg.htm

Louise Nevelson (1900-1988)

Born in Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine), in 1900, Louise Nevelson emigrated to the United States with her
family in 1905 to settle in Rockland, Maine. In 1920, she moved to New York, and studied at the Art
Student League. She also studied at the Hoffman in Munich, Germany. Nevelson's career began as
an assistant to Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican artist.

By the 1950s, she had begun making assemblages, a form of work Nevelson is well known for:
shallow box-like units filled with industrial waste wood. By spraying these units a uniform color --
black, gold or silver -- she disguises the soft texture of wood to achieve a solid assemblage. Louise
Nevelson showed at the Venice Biennale in 1962. She has since been widely viewed as one of the
most important American artists of this century. She died in 1988.

More about Louise Nevelson: http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_117A.html
More about Loiuse Nevelson: http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9312687

For more about assemblage in general, see:

The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction: http://collagemuseum.com/

The Muse artzine article about assemblage: http://www.volcanoarts.biz/muse/2000-05/kelly/index.htm

Ethiopian Passages : Contemporary Art from the Diaspora (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Harney - amazing artwork and the stories behind them

Joseph Cornell : Master of Dreams (Paperback)
by Diane Waldman
________________________________________

Copyright 2006 Fragile Industries Studios
Ventura, CA
Participatory Altered Art and Assemblage
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