COLLAGE=RESISTANCE ART?
Collage is, most commonly, not impressive to the average person. Most people think that gluing scraps together isn’t really art, and cannot be as compelling as things like statues or paintings.
Although, the history of collage is one of the most rebellious of all art! Leading resistances against unjust governments, fighting for equality.
Collage also serves as a time capsule, using actual materials from the era to make commentary on the politics and social downfalls of that era!
And when you think of political collage, you think of Hannah Höch.
Hannah Höch's
‘The Beautiful Girl’ (1919)
Rebels with a cause, armed with collage...
Hannah Höch was a German artist who helped pioneer photo collage and provided sharp political commentary during the 1900’s.
She used clippings from pop culture and newspapers to make commentary on her oppressive government and on feminism during that time period.
Henri Robert’s article COLLAGE, AN INTRINSICALLY POLITICAL FORM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION? is a great source for collage history. He talks about five different political collage artists but I think he left out one of the most important ones, John Heartfield.
John Heartfield was another German artist who worked for AIZ Magazine, a magazine that was extremely popular and fought against the rise of Hitler.
He chose recognizable press photographs of politicians of the time, cut them out and rearranged them to flip and satirize their message.
An extremely brave pursuit during that time in history.
John Heartfield
'Mimikry' (1934)
So, where is collage now?
In modern times, the most popular collage commentary is in the magazine Adbusters.
Although, Adbusters has one evident claim to fame, rearranging ads.
They often take ads from extremely large companies (Apple, Amazon, McDonald's)and combine them with images of poverty, making sharp political and social commentary on capitalism and social justice.
Of course, all other art forms have, at some point, expressed every side of politics and social reform. But in a historical sense, there is not one art form tied so singularly to political and social activism than collage.