Collage Artist Research

Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters
(20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948)
Was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany.
Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Constructivism,  poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, Surrealism, graphic design, and installation art. He is most famous for his collages, called Merz Pictures.
Kurt lived in Hanover where he created a self-enclosed world from his many varied art skills. He called himself and his art "Merz" (from a cut-up fragment of newspaper that had originally read "Kommerz".)
Schwitters’ main place to work was his house in Hanover, where he began his best work of art. He put pictures and collages on the wall and connected them by string and wood. This was called "Merzbau” which gradually took over the downstairs but then needed to be expanded, Schwitters cut a hole in the ceiling and gave notice to his upstairs lodgers. Into this structure Merzbau Schwitters placed a strange collection of objects gathered from other artists and friends.

Hannah Höch

In Berlin Hannah Höch met with Raoul Hausmann. Together they set about learning the techniques of photomontage. She developed her own unique style, which gained a wider audience and appreciation. Many of Hannah Höch's pictures still look astonishingly modern, the sophistication of her approach of her subjects do not seem to date.

"Cut with The Kitchen Knife" shows her intriguing ability to balance many elements into a composition, besides being an early example of a female artist showing her belief in the strength of women.

Höch's relationship with Hausmann ended in 1923, Höch was very influenced by artists such as Kurt Schwitters, and Max Ernst. Their artistic approach to the medium was more suited to Höch's sensibility.

Tom Wesselmann

Was born in Cincinnati / Ohio on 23 February 1931.

1945 -1951 he studied at the Hiram College.

One year later he was called up for military service due to the Korea war.

Disliking his situation he began to draw cartoons. 
In 1954 he continued his studies and attended the art academy.

He then attended the Cooper Union School for Arts and Architecture in 1956. He earned his keep by drawing cartoons and teaching.  At the end of the fifties he Created a few collage’s "Great American Nudes" and "Still life".
In 1963 Tom Wesselmann married his girl-friend Claire Selley. He began a series of "Bathtub Collages". 
Tom Wesselmann died in New York on 17 December 2004.

Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton was born in London on February 24, 1922.

He went to evening art classes before studying painting at the Royal Academy School from 1938 to 1940.

He Earned money from the advertising industry.

From 1941 to 1945 Hamilton worked as a designer.

 In 1946 Hamilton carried on his studies of painting at the Royal Academy School he mainly on etching. After a trip to New York in 1963, Richard Hamilton combined elements of photography and painting into his pictures. In the 1980s he intensively studied digital media and their effect on image perception.
In 2003, Museum Ludwig in Cologne displayed work organized in co-operation with the artist himself, entitled "Introspective".\

All of the Artist follow the same basics of Collage





Collage

My original plan was the do the collage like a train track with the land objects on the track and the water on the area that would have been ground to show the representation between boat and train travel. I changed my piece when editing to just be a ‘mishmash’ of images fading into each other with both a track and water as a background.

After researching multiple Artists, I found that I liked the faded look and tried to incorporate it into my final piece, I intended to mix them all together so it looked like an actual path with them all faded together, I also liked the idea of making it look like an old photo, but I didn’t do much in the ‘aged’ theme.

After completing my Final piece I found myself quite Happy having only used Photoshop once before, I thought I had managed to use the tools quite well, to make an effective piece, the only real problem that I had was the resolution when I made a few of the images larger than their original size.

Overall I think that my Final Piece was up to standard and that I had done enough artist research to make a good choice in the style of my Collage.