Photomontage

We are currently looking at photomontage in detail and the different artists that are well known for this style. Photomontage is a type of collage that is composed mainly from photographs or parts of a photograph to make the reader see that there is a specific connection.  

To start off with I thought photomontage was a lazy way of abstract art, where you are just placing images in a random order rather than drawing them and for me I couldn't cope because it was too messy and I didn't know where to place things. But by doing it more and more I am starting to like photomontage a lot, especially by looking at artists work such as Robert Rauschenberg and Hannah Hoch. 

Robert Rauschenberg was an American painter and Graphic artist who was well known for his "Combines" work which was done in the 1950's. The combines was a combination of both painting and sculpture, but every now and then he would also work with photography, papermaking, printmaking and performance.

I love how Robert Rauschenberg incorporates different materials such as newspaper to wood all to be put into his work. For me this makes me even more interested in Photomontage because it shows me that I am able to use different materials in my own work.

This is one of the pictures that stood out to me the most, it is known as "Choke" and to me it has an urban edge to it and seems very city like and most of all it stands out from the rest of his art work as Rauschenberg uses vibrant dashes of red and blue.

Another artist that inspires me is Hannah Hoch who was one of the originators of photomontage, as well she  was a German Dada artist, which is an art movement of the European avant garde in the twentieth century. 

Hannah Hoch's work in 1926 to 1935 often depicted same sex couples and women, which were used as the central theme in her work from 1963 to 1973. Hoch tried to target women ever since working with a magazine company which made her actually aware of the difference between women in the media and women in reality.

Hannah Hoch's montage were always fun and unique and nearly all of her montages contained some sort of human feature which was placed and mixed about between other features and objects. 

A great example of this was the work she did with the legs mixed with the two faces. To me I thought she had brought humour to the montage which made it stand out by being different. 

With both artists work in mind, I found it easier for me to plan and set out a little story, so this way I knew what I was getting, how I was going to edit it and where I was going to place things onto my page, which was much more organised and 'less' messy. 

Man Ray also inspires me, he was an American modernist artist who spent most of his life in Paris.

Man Ray uses a vary of materials such as painting, collage, sculpture, constructed objects and photography, by creating different types of beautiful art pieces with different materials throughout his life, he has received many commissions for portraits and commerical work such as working with Vogue, Vu, Bazaar and Vanity Fair.

This particular piece of art that Man Ray had produced was the first one that I thought stood out the most, although it may seem like just a picture of eyes, it makes you think about her and her emotions and how she is currently feeling in this picture to get such a beautiful portrait.

Peter Blake became one of the best known British pop artists in the late 1950's, Peter Blake was best known in his time and now for creating a vary of prints and designs for a sleeve for The The Beatles' album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.

His art work would included imagery from advertisements, entertainment, music hall and more, all his pieces of work would often include some sort of collage element.

I like this print mainly because of the contrasting colours he has used to make the lettering stand out.

He has only stuck to three main colours which enables you to focus on the detail and parts of the two words that would easily overlay on one and another so you can notice that it says "Rock" and "Roll".

Another reason I like this piece of work is because there is so little going on and its simple compared to his other pieces of work, for me it makes it stand out even more because it is that effective.

Varvara Stepanova was a Russian painter, photographer and designer. She was a member of the group of artists that would work in the Russian avant-garde movement. Later on in her career she would refer to herself as a constructivist.

Being a designer, Varvara Stepanova created everything from posters and books to sets and costumes for local theaters.



This work that Stepanova had created stood out for me to begin with, I particular like this piece of work because of the vary of colours and shapes she has chosen and had thrown onto her page in an organised way, I especially like the way she has created objects and bodies which show movement out of bold blocked shapes.

David Hockney is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. Throughout his career David has made many prints, portraits of friends and even stage designs for the Royal Court Theatre, Glyndebourne, La Scala and the Mertropolitan Opera in New York City.

Hockney tried to put personal subject matters into his own artwork, to start off with he tried to copy parts of poems on to his artwork, but as soon as he moved to California at the end of 1963, his style changed to the life of athletic young men, swimming pools, palm trees and perpetual sunshine.



This was David Hockney's Ipad artwork which he had created using the latest technology by apple. I like this mainly because of the subtle colours which allows you to see what it is and gives it a more calm and relaxing mood to it.

Max Ernst was a German surrealist who helped start off Abstract Expressionism in the American post World War II. His work consisted of sculpture, painting or collage and for him it was a way to unpack his feelings into his work. 

'The Elephant Celebes' is almost fantasy, with headless bodies and what looks like some sort of robot shaped elephant. 

The colours of this picture are dark and gloomy, giving it a negative atmosphere as if something bad is currently or about to happen.

Print Making Pictures

1). Lily - Black and White, First Attempt 

 2). Lily - Coloured, Second Attempt

 3). Tilleke Schwarz Cat - Coloured, Third Attempt

 4). Cartoon Cat - Coloured, Final Attempt

Print Making

I have created a series of A4 mono prints, I have done this by drawing a particular image onto newsprint then I placed the newsprint with the drawing face up onto a vary of thin coloured inks and used different materials to get different effects, for example I used a pencil to outline the actual image and I also used a graphite stick to shade in particular areas. Once I was happy with what I had done, I would then lift up the newsprint paper and either add another colour using the same process or I would let it dry out by putting it onto the wire rack.

1). The first attempt at mono printing I used a picture of a Lily and then drew it onto a piece of newsprint paper. When it came to placing the image onto the ink I stuck to just black ink around the outline of the drawing, so I could get use to using this process. I rather like this final outcome I got as although it is basic, it got every detail that I needed within my lily.

2). The second attempt at mono printing I used the same image of a lily and re-drew it out onto a piece of newsprint paper. But this time after I placed it onto the black ink from outlining it, I used other colours to make the lily stand out more. Unfortunately this process didn't work out as well as I hoped it to be, as when I placed the red on top of the yellow, I didn't think it through and it made my lily look messy with unnecessary blotches of red onto of it.

3). The next mono print I decided to draw onto newsprint paper was an image from Tilleke Schwarz work and that was a childlike drawing of a cat. I strangely like the final outcome as with the choice of colours I used and how the stripes on the cat had been done, it gave it a really good effect and make it more fun and quirky, despise how terrible the cat has been drawn.

4). The final mono print I did was an image of a cartoon cat I found off of the Internet, I used only two colours on this piece of work, which was simple but gave a good effect in the end, I used a graphite stick throughout all of this piece so it would look bold and would stand out even more compared to the thin line drawing of the lily, which was done in pencil.

Ian Bilbey

Ian Bilbey graduated from the Royal College of Art and straight after he worked with John McConnell at pentagram before he became a freelance designer and illustrator.

Bilbey was well known for working with his longest client 'Paul Smith', for whom he had created products, window displays, posters, clothing designs and his well recognised Paul Smith minis.

He is now recently known as 'William Bee' and has written and illustrated numerous amounts of children's books for walker books, which have officially been published all around the world.

To me I find his work quirky and bright, mainly concentrating on colour and line.
Especially this piece of work Ian Bilbey had created, I discovered this illustration which stood out for me the most because of the use of colours, by overlapping the dark colour by the bright shades of pinks and purples you could recognise what the outline shape was supposed to be and even with this choice of colours and the type of shapes that have been used it almost makes the image look slightly feminine and child like.

Chris Dent

Chris Dent uses a similar style throughout his work which is mainly relating all his work to modern architecture. He also tries to combines reality as well as an original point of view to represent his view on the world.

I love this piece of work as by only using two or three colours it seems so simple and fresh but gives a great effect and you can easily recognise it.
I think in the future I might look back at his work and use small elements that he uses like the limited colours for example, this way I might be able to get a bold effect which he has in his work.