Collage artists typically work with appropriated images (on-line and print).
I recently wrote about ON LINE: Drawing Through the 20th Century at the Museum of Modern Art (the show closed Feb 7, 2011) – and talked about Paul Klee’s reverse drawings in the exhibition. I make reverse drawings and understand the process.
I was so inspired by all the lines, I immediately made a collage with line drawings. But I didn’t make the lines.
The drawings are small, appropriated papers – reproductions from periodicals like Artforum Magazine. I found the papers and put them together. I like the lines. Everything is very graphic. But they aren’t my lines, and I can do my own.
All collage artists are concerned with copyright infringement, what they can take and how they can use it. Some things are too easy and you shouldn’t use other peoples images.
I tell students in my collage workshops to add papers and paint and embellish found papers to make the images their own (and advise them to take their own photos in related setups if they want to work with photocollage).
Some artists make it a point to use appropriated images. That’s their niche.
Read about the claims and counterclaims of two hot recent copyright infringement headliners - Shepard Fairey and the AP, and Richard Prince and Gagosian Gallery.
Nancy Nikkal, Drawing the Line
The image above shows a section of a grid with papers, and lines that are straight, curve, criss-cross, and scribble. Can you see any famous artist’s work?
I put the blocks together, and added 2 or 3 smaller papers to modify each block, then put everything on a painted green background (substrate). The individual blocks very in size from 2 1/2 x 3 inches to 3 x 3 1/2 inches.
I like the variety, but decided I don’t like the idea that the lines aren’t mine.
Paul Klee did reverse drawings. Two were included in the MoMA exhibition and both are in the MoMA collection.
The first drawing is titled The Angler (1921) It’s oil transfer, watercolor and ink on paper with watercolor and ink borders on board and is 19 7/8 x 12 ½ inches.
The second drawing (see it nearby) is titled Twittering Machine (1922). It’s oil transfer, watercolor and ink on paper with gouache and ink borders on board and is 25 ¼ x 19 inches.
Paul Klee, Twittering Machine
MAKE A REVERSE DRAWING
You can do a reverse drawing and nobody will know it’s a drawing because the drawing is on the back of the paper. The front (the reverse) looks like an etching. You’ll get a very interesting line.
Materials are basic: You’ll need paper, oil paint (or oil-based printing ink), a disposable paper palette, a metal palette knife, a print brayer and some mark-making tools like pencils, a ballpoint pen, and a wooden spoon.
The media has to be oil, not acrylic or water-based inks because only oil will stay moist long enough to do the transfer drawing.
Other materials you will need: drawing or printmaking papers cut to the size you want.
To start, squeeze a small amount of paint or ink on the disposable palette and spread it across the palette in a simple line. Work with the print brayer to create a smooth film of paint or ink over a large area of the paper palette (or spread the media with the palette knife).
Use any color oil paint or oil-based ink you want. I like brown, black and green.
After the color is spread on the palette, lay a clean piece of paper carefully on top. Don’t press it down. Don’t touch it or your fingerprints will show on the reverse side.
Your paper can be smaller than the paper palette and smaller than the ink or paint you’ve spread, or it can be as large as the paper palette (or even hang beyond it).
Have fun drawing with a pencil, pen or another mark-making tool. See how gently or how hard you need to press down to get the line transfer you want. The image will be in reverse. You may even like the image backward.
Some of your reverse drawings will be winners, and like Paul Klee you can add watercolor paint, ink crayons or pastel. Some of your reverse drawings will be less than perfect, but ideal papers for collage.
Try to write backwards in your reverse drawings. Try to do the drawing without a pen or pencil so you don’t see the lines as you are making them. Surprise yourself.
If you want to write text you can read, write it backwards, so it will read forward on the reverse side. Or write your words on tracing paper first and flip the paper over, then look at it in reverse as you do the reverse drawing.
You can look at a drawings when you do the reverse drawing if you want to draw from something in front of you.
See my reverse drawing faces at my website. I did variations of a single drawing by changing the speed and direction of the lines I made. I also changed the amount of oil paint on the paper palette (some thicker, some thinner), and changed the pencil or pen.
SERENDIPITY and MORE POSSIBILITIES: a WORK in PROGRESS
I just made reverse drawings of lines on small pieces of printmaking paper for a new collage. I placed the drawings in a grid of 3 across and 4 down, then reorganized them into a larger grid.
When the grid was enlarged, almost all the pieces needed to be adjusted.
Some of the drawings were too bold. Some were too busy. As individuals they were good, but in a group they were competitive and had to be toned down. So I added layers of oil paint to some to make a few lighter and others darker.
I added a little yellow to warm up the white and black. It made grey green. Then I needed to add a vibrant green to add punch.
Nancy Nikkal, Reverse Drawings for Collage
I put the pieces on a large beautiful sheet of printmaking paper – ready to collage. It’s not yet glued down. So it might change before it’s finished.
In collage, things move (even a little) as you lift them up, turn them over, coat them with glue, lift them back up, and, finally, place then down on the substrate. I call it serendipity.
Are you ready to draw?
Please let me know if you need more information about reverse drawing. Thanks for sharing your comments.
Drawing is Collage-Collage is Drawing
February 13, 2011
I was in Manhattan in NYC, a week ago Friday, had an hour to spare before meeting friends uptown at the Studio Museum in Harlem to see Mark Bradford’s collages. There was just enough time to visit the Museum of Modern Art. I had to do it.
The MoMA exhibition “On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century” was going to close the following Monday, February 7th. All my artist friends said You Must See this Exhibition. It’s not just about lines and drawing. It’s also about collage.
There was a weather forecast for more snow, so an extra hour might be all the opportunity I would have to see the show before it closed.
Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Collage
As I entered the 6th floor exhibition gallery, there was a small crowd gathered, listening to a docent in front of the first three works in the exhibition – all by Pablo Picasso – all titled Guitar – one a collage, one an assemblage, one a charcoal line drawing – all done in 1913 and 1914.
The collage, seen nearby, titled Guitar, is cut and pasted paper, printed paper, charcoal, ink and chalk on colored paper on board (1913), 26×19 inches.
I heard the docent say: Picasso used line to emphasize the flatness of the surface. She continued: notice the charcoal he used to outline the papers in the collage.
In 1912, Picasso was inspired by movement in space, by dance and motion pictures. Along with Georges Braque, Picasso invented Cubism and modern collage to explore those ideas.
Paul Klee said: A drawing is simply a line going for a walk
Paul Klee, Der Angler, Reverse Drawing
On Monday, the same day the exhibition was due to close, I came back with Bette, a dear friend whose field is interior design. We celebrated her birthday at MoMA. It was great fun to share comments about the individual art works as we walked through the exhibition.
The image nearby is titled Der Angler (the Angler) 1921. It’s an oil transfer drawing, watercolor and ink on paper with watercolor and ink borders on board 19 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches.
I explained to Bette how a reverse drawing is made: Basically the artist draws from the back onto a sheet of paper that is face down on a surface coated with a thin layer of oil paint or print ink. The line that is transferred to the front of the paper is the impression made with a fine pencil or pen.
After the oil paint dried, Klee added ink and other media.
As Bette and I walked through the exhibition galleries, I asked myself: What makes each work in this show a drawing? Why is it included? What media makes the line?
I looked at the works in terms of how each artist explored the line in two or three dimensions. We saw the line extended beyond the canvas. I was intrigued by work by Robert Ryman (American, born 1930) titled Impex, an unstretched linen canvas stapled to the wall with a a blue chalk line drawn from the top right edge up to the ceiling.
We saw dimensional works and sculpture projecting forward from the wall (a stabile by Alexander Calder). We saw sculpture that looked like lines in space hanging from the ceiling.
There was free standing sculpture on the floor, including Cube (9x9x9 feet), black finished steel (2008) by Mona Hatoum (born Beirut, Lebanon, 1952).
We saw loose undulating lines in colored pencil on cardboard, 1940 by Sophie Taeuber Arp. I prefer taut lines. Bette commented: Loose Ends.
I purchased the exhibition catalog for my collage library collection. It has excellent essays on the concept behind OnLine. You can see On Line online. You’ll almost feel you are seeing the show because there are so many images and links to video and excellent text about the show.
My Favorite artist’s and their drawings in the show are by Pablo Picasso (Spanish 1881-1973), Hans (Jean) Arp (French, born Germany 1886-1966, Paul Klee (German, born Switzerland 1879-1940), Atsugo Tanaka (Japanese, 1932-2005), Eva Hesse (American, born Germany 1936-1970), and Lucio Fontana (Argentine 1899-1968).
Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept: Expectations
The image nearby is by Lucio Fontana (1899-1968), titled “Spatial Concept: Expectations (1959) and is synthetic polymer paint on slashed burlap, 39×32 inches.
Inspired by Futurism, Fontana wanted to escape the “prison” of the flat picture surface and explore movement, time, and space. Starting in 1949, he punctured and pierced the surfaces of sheets of paper to reach behind to what he called “a free space.” In the late 1950s Fontana began to slash linear cuts into stretched canvases.
Catherine de Zegher wrote an essay for the exhibition catalog: Drawing is characterized by a line that is always unfolding, always becoming. Drawing is understood as an open-ended activity. The exhibition explores surface tension, the line broken free from the surface.
She adds: The history that informs the exhibition is interpreted here as an interweaving of materials, records, and the requirements of a changing present. The reading inevitably reflects notions of interconnection (as on the Web) and interdependency in a new globalized society. She wrote:
Thought has been linear and progressive.
It has evolved into a kind of network
More fluid, open, simultaneous and undefined.
Atsugo Tanaka, Round on Sand, Performance
The image nearby is by the Japanese artist Atsugo Tanaka (1932-2005). It’s a view of her performance Round on Sand (1956). She was also represented in the show with 2 works on paper done with India ink, ink pencil and crayon on paper – one a preparatory drawing and the other a drawing after her performance Electric Dress (1956).
Atsugo Tanaka, Electric Dress
The image nearby is a drawing by Atsugo Tanaka, titled Drawing After Electric Dress (India ink, ink, pencil and crayon on paper 30 5/16 x 21 5/8 inches, 1956)
It looks like a drawing. It is actually the plan for a performance.
Calvin Tomkins, in his excellent book LIVES of the ARTISTS, wrote: “The radical changes in art and society that were set in motion during the early years of the twentieth century gave rise to a new kind of artist…where
Art could be whatever artists decided it was, and there were no restrictions on the methods and materials – from video and verbal constructs to raw nature and urban detritus – that they could use…If art can be anything, where do you begin?
Begin with Picasso.
On February 10th, my friend Dale invited me to join her at the Museum of Modern Art Member’s preview to see Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914. The 3 Guitars from the OnLine show are now ensconced in the Guitar show. Because of the way the show is lighted, the works look even more dimensional. The show is exquisite.
Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Paper Construction
The image nearby is Picasso’s Guitar (about 1913). It’s made with paperboard, paper, string, and painted wire installed with cut cardboard box, overall: 30 x 20 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches. Picasso gifted the work to the Museum of Modern Art.
See Holland Cotter’s exhibition review “When Picasso Changed His Tune” in the NY Times, (Friday, February 11, 2011).
The review opens: “It’s 1912 and Pablo Picasso is in Paris, thinking: All right, what’s next?”
Cotter writes: “piece by piece it’s entrancing. Taken as a whole it’s a record of a brief but intense revolution that generated some of the most challenging ideas in modern art.
I would love to hear what you think about drawing and, if you visited the MoMA exhibition, what you thought of the works and the artists in the show. Thank you for your comments.
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