Collage

Henri Matisse

Matisse used saturated colours in his paintings and later, in his paper cut-outs. His work is vibrant and colour always played a central role in everything he did. He wanted to explore how colour can be expressive and his cut paper work consists of flat areas of vibrant plain colours. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/matisse/

Kurt Schwitters

Schwitters worked as a painter, designer, architect and writer among other jobs but managed to combine all of these with ease. His collage work is constructed from meaningless, unrelated objects and junk such as envelopes, discarded leaflets and bus tickets. His work is abstract and harmonious and he was determined to avoid the elitism often associated with Art by making works of art from pieces of non-art.

Look closely at the work of Kurt Schwitters and see if the children can identify some of the everyday objects he has used.

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg used subject matter drawn from the popular culture and mass media of the USA. He used images and commonplace objects to create collages and paintings e.g ‘Bed’ 1955 in which he used his bed linen because he had run out of canvas. He wanted to break away from traditional Art and became one of the forerunners of the Pop Art movement. http://www.artnet.com/artist/14005/robert-rauschenberg.html