ARTISTS
Metamorphosis Victorianus
UBU GALLERY OCTOBER 30, 2009鈥嗏�撯�咼ANUARY 30, 2010 鈥淢odern Collage, Victorian Engravings & Nostalgia鈥� is the subtitle of a scholarly exhib
Valery Oisteanu / The Brooklyn Rail
01 Dec, 2009
UBU GALLERY OCTOBER聽30, 2009鈥嗏�撯�咼ANUARY 30, 2010
鈥淢odern Collage, Victorian Engravings & Nostalgia鈥� is the subtitle of a scholarly exhibition that serves as a concise intro to the history of 鈥減aste-ups鈥� from 1929 through the mid-1990s. More than 120 works from nearly seven decades of 鈥渙neiric-collage鈥� are on display in the intimate setting of a Dada salon, contributing to a dream-narrative dredged from the subconscious. Mostly in black-and-white, these works are built from images clipped from the popular press, natural history, picture postcards, photography, and 19th-century engravings and jammed into incongruous juxtapositions across futuristic, fairytale landscapes.
The show reveals something of a mutual admiration society among the collagists on display, a reminder of how pervasive the movement galvanized by the Parisian Surrealists has become, up to and including the neo-Dada and post-Surrealist collages being produced today.
Standing out from the pack, of course, is Max Ernst (1891-1976), but we can trace threads of influence among all the artists chosen by curator Meredith Harper. The pioneering Dada/Surrealists of the late 1920s and 1930s, including Max Bucaille (1906-1992), Dr. Franz Roh (1890-1965), Jindrich Styrsky (1899-1942),聽 and Otto Hofmann (1907-1994), had a big impact on Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) and Gerome Kamrowski (1914-2004), who were, in turn, followed by Ray Johnson (1927-1995), Jess (1923-2004), and Bruce Conner (1933-2008).
The kind of collage practiced by the Surrealists, unlike the form pioneered by the Cubists, came out of fantasy in art as well as the popularity of dream interpretation and the influence of hallucinations stimulated by drugs or hypnosis. Ernst鈥檚 collage novels, starting with聽La Femme 100 Tet锚s聽(The Hundred Headless Woman, Edition de Carrefour 1929), turned harmless images from 19th-century illustrations, technical catalogues, and commercial publications into erotic tales with touches of Grand Guignol. It could be justifiable to say that these works ignited 鈥渃ollage madness鈥� among the Parisian Surrealists.聽 In his 鈥淎dvice to the Reader,鈥� published as an introduction to聽La Femme 100 Tet锚s,聽Andr茅 Breton states that each element in Ernst鈥檚 images has left its original purpose behind for a new objective, provoking 鈥渋nnumerable illusions of true recognition that is up to us, and us alone, to have in the future and the past.鈥� His declaration that 鈥淪urreality will depend on our will toward complete disorientation from everything鈥� remains the best definition of surrealism from Breton or anyone else.
Jess and Bruce Conner both used Ernst鈥檚 collage novels as a jumping-off point, which led to collages incorporating words and poems, such as the former鈥檚 鈥淣orma Cole: Entropicas Catasters & Doubtful Fragments鈥� (1995) or his quirky series 鈥淣o Smoking,鈥� presented here in five paste-ups from 1972, including the hilarious 鈥淟ung Tonic Smoke Not.鈥� An original collage by Conner, 鈥淗ashish鈥� (1961), is so atmospherically descriptive that we could be led to believe that the artist, seen here as a headless figure, was under some kind of influence, probably hallucinogenic. Another edition of his etchings feels like an attempt to activate new cells in the viewer鈥檚 brain through stimulating juxtapositions, as in the potpourri of architectural details devoid of human presence, except for a woman鈥檚 hand, in 鈥淭ake Two,D.H.O.M.S.鈥�
The show also collects some dark assemblage/constructions by Kamrowski, Roh, and 艩tyrsk媒 and concludes with four collages on black stock by Hofmann, a product of the Bauhaus school who combined science, naturalism, and subversive sexuality in images such as the literally uptight women in corsets displayed in 鈥淲omen鈥檚 Power or a Conversation on High Intellectual Levels鈥� (1934).
Although the exhibit is well-orchestrated, this is not a major overview. There is a certain delight, however, in seeing so many works from across the decades brought together, showing a clear continuity and evolution of the surrealist collage. For a more complete history of the use of Victorian engraving in figurative/narrative collage, art-lovers and curators should also look at the images and collage novels of such European and native surrealists as Juan Benet, Norman Rubington, Valentine Hugo, Georges Hugnet, Jacques B. Brunius, Toyen, Karel Teige, Jindrich Heisler, Adolf Hoffmeister, Laurence Vail, Ted Joans, Ludwig Zeller, Conroy Maddox, Jorge Caceres, and Braulio Arenas, just to name a few.
鈥淢odern Collage, Victorian Engravings & Nostalgia鈥� is the subtitle of a scholarly exhibition that serves as a concise intro to the history of 鈥減aste-ups鈥� from 1929 through the mid-1990s. More than 120 works from nearly seven decades of 鈥渙neiric-collage鈥� are on display in the intimate setting of a Dada salon, contributing to a dream-narrative dredged from the subconscious. Mostly in black-and-white, these works are built from images clipped from the popular press, natural history, picture postcards, photography, and 19th-century engravings and jammed into incongruous juxtapositions across futuristic, fairytale landscapes.
The show reveals something of a mutual admiration society among the collagists on display, a reminder of how pervasive the movement galvanized by the Parisian Surrealists has become, up to and including the neo-Dada and post-Surrealist collages being produced today.
Standing out from the pack, of course, is Max Ernst (1891-1976), but we can trace threads of influence among all the artists chosen by curator Meredith Harper. The pioneering Dada/Surrealists of the late 1920s and 1930s, including Max Bucaille (1906-1992), Dr. Franz Roh (1890-1965), Jindrich Styrsky (1899-1942),聽 and Otto Hofmann (1907-1994), had a big impact on Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) and Gerome Kamrowski (1914-2004), who were, in turn, followed by Ray Johnson (1927-1995), Jess (1923-2004), and Bruce Conner (1933-2008).
The kind of collage practiced by the Surrealists, unlike the form pioneered by the Cubists, came out of fantasy in art as well as the popularity of dream interpretation and the influence of hallucinations stimulated by drugs or hypnosis. Ernst鈥檚 collage novels, starting with聽La Femme 100 Tet锚s聽(The Hundred Headless Woman, Edition de Carrefour 1929), turned harmless images from 19th-century illustrations, technical catalogues, and commercial publications into erotic tales with touches of Grand Guignol. It could be justifiable to say that these works ignited 鈥渃ollage madness鈥� among the Parisian Surrealists.聽 In his 鈥淎dvice to the Reader,鈥� published as an introduction to聽La Femme 100 Tet锚s,聽Andr茅 Breton states that each element in Ernst鈥檚 images has left its original purpose behind for a new objective, provoking 鈥渋nnumerable illusions of true recognition that is up to us, and us alone, to have in the future and the past.鈥� His declaration that 鈥淪urreality will depend on our will toward complete disorientation from everything鈥� remains the best definition of surrealism from Breton or anyone else.
Jess and Bruce Conner both used Ernst鈥檚 collage novels as a jumping-off point, which led to collages incorporating words and poems, such as the former鈥檚 鈥淣orma Cole: Entropicas Catasters & Doubtful Fragments鈥� (1995) or his quirky series 鈥淣o Smoking,鈥� presented here in five paste-ups from 1972, including the hilarious 鈥淟ung Tonic Smoke Not.鈥� An original collage by Conner, 鈥淗ashish鈥� (1961), is so atmospherically descriptive that we could be led to believe that the artist, seen here as a headless figure, was under some kind of influence, probably hallucinogenic. Another edition of his etchings feels like an attempt to activate new cells in the viewer鈥檚 brain through stimulating juxtapositions, as in the potpourri of architectural details devoid of human presence, except for a woman鈥檚 hand, in 鈥淭ake Two,D.H.O.M.S.鈥�
The show also collects some dark assemblage/constructions by Kamrowski, Roh, and 艩tyrsk媒 and concludes with four collages on black stock by Hofmann, a product of the Bauhaus school who combined science, naturalism, and subversive sexuality in images such as the literally uptight women in corsets displayed in 鈥淲omen鈥檚 Power or a Conversation on High Intellectual Levels鈥� (1934).
Although the exhibit is well-orchestrated, this is not a major overview. There is a certain delight, however, in seeing so many works from across the decades brought together, showing a clear continuity and evolution of the surrealist collage. For a more complete history of the use of Victorian engraving in figurative/narrative collage, art-lovers and curators should also look at the images and collage novels of such European and native surrealists as Juan Benet, Norman Rubington, Valentine Hugo, Georges Hugnet, Jacques B. Brunius, Toyen, Karel Teige, Jindrich Heisler, Adolf Hoffmeister, Laurence Vail, Ted Joans, Ludwig Zeller, Conroy Maddox, Jorge Caceres, and Braulio Arenas, just to name a few.
