Thoughts on Cubist collage

Working on the first term paper at the Courtauld, on Cubist collage and the use of newspaper, and thinking a lot about Picasso's beautiful, spare, three-material collages from November–December 1912. I love all of those early collage pieces, but I just got the MoMA catalog for the show Picasso's Guitars: 1912-14 that was up earlier this year, and the gorgeous reproductions and studio shots positioning the collage in series with the sculptural assemblage of the guitar have got me thinking in all different directions. Even more than the 1913-14 works, its almost as if the spareness of the image, just using line, newspaper, and the substrate of the paper, is an indication of three-materials in three-dimensions. Of holding an object like a newspaper and seeing it, seeing through it, and seeing beyond it.

More to come.

Pablo Picasso, Bottle and wine glass on a table, 1912.

Pablo Picasso. Installation in the artist's studio at 242, boulevard Raspail Paris, December 9, 1912, or later. Gelatin silver print, 3 3/8 x 4 1/2" (8.6 x 11.5 cm). Private collection. Photo: Objectif 31. © 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso, studio composition, photograph, 1913.