7: Theoretical studies Schwitters and Rauschenberg

First image Robert Rauschenberg, Trophy 1 oil and collage on canvas,1959.
© The Bridgeman Art library - London,New York, Paris.





Victory Oil and collage on newspaper, Kurt Schwitters
© The Bridgeman Art library - London,New York, Paris.



Kurt Schwitters is generally acknowledged as the twentieth century greatest master of collage.
He used discarded scraps to create his collages, encouraged by the Dada artist Hans Arp. The placement of his scraps are carefully balanced and remind me of a Cubist or Constructivist composition , where he pays great attention to the verticals and horizontals. His bold wide ranging experiments have influenced many artists and he could be considered the grandfather of Pop Art.

Robert Rauschenberg

The Abstract Expressionist artist Robert Rauschenburg was inspired by the work of Kurt Schwitters and he himself composed many paintings using FOUND objects.

The work of both Schwitters and Rauschenberg interests me, I can see how Schwitters influenced the work of Rauschenberg there is a distinct similarity in style and concept. Rauschenbergs pieces are very much like visual diaries with his use of discarded objects that he found and assembled. He didn't interfere too much with the original object but by the careful placement juxtaposed alongside another scrap the work became something else more interesting and exciting to contemplate.

sketchbook studies for 7: painting without paint

A selection of images from my sketchbook, using mixed media. Experimenting with a variety of different styles and techniques.

7: painting without paint ( theoretical studies)

Hannah Hoch,Strong Armed Men 1931.
© The Bridgeman Art Library - London, New York, Paris.

The Cubists, Braque and Picasso inaugurated Synthetic Cubism with collages containing natural everyday objects. But it was after the Great War that collage began to be used as a new art form among the Dadaists who were looking for a new form of expression, but at the same time moving away from abstract work and the more traditional art forms of the time.

Hannah Hoch

The work of the Dada artist Hannah Hoch is timeless and could quite happily sit among the work of todays artists.
Her work is still hugely relevant even today. Whilst she took her inspiration from a variety of subjects, she did focus a great deal on the absurdity of stereotypical images of women of her era.
Her images consisted largely of cuttings from magazines which she cut up and manipulated to create surreal images which were often dark and quite disturbing. However whilst the majority of the Dada artists would create work which was blatantly provocative, Hochs compositions appear more subtle relying more on irony to get her message across, maybe this was due to the fact that women were actively discouraged from speaking their minds.



Dada was never an art style, like Cubism nor did it have political aims like Futurism. Its aims were to provide the freedoms to experiment with anything and everything and was itself anti art. Anything that art stood for was rejected by Dada, aesthetics and traditional bourgeois capitalistic ideology was to be demolished. Emerging in Post war Switzerland it began to spread across Europe until it was to become an international phenomenon, although the groups were relatively short lived.