’Cut ’n’ Paste’: MoMA explores the art of collage

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MoMA's 'Cut 'n' Paste' exhibition
MoMA's 'Cut 'n' Paste' exhibition surveys nearly a century of art and architectural collage. © 2013 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photograph: Thomas Griesel (Image credit: Thomas Griesel)

In 1961 New York's Museum of Modern Art surveyed the art of assemblage in an exhibition that brought the fragmented work of Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, Bruce Conner and Edward Kienholz to a wider audience. More than 50 years later, the museum has raided the archives for the finest examples of collage, a sister artform that layers, juxtaposes and remixes materials not just physically but conceptually.

'Cut 'n' Paste', curated by Pedro Gadanho and Phoebe Springstubb of MoMA's department of architecture and design, takes an oft overlooked technique and reveals it as an apt and meaningful commentator on our contemporary culture.

The show goes back to the early 20th century - to figures like Edward Steichen and Giorgio de Chirico - to explore a genre that's bridged the Cubist works of Picasso and Braque (the style, after all, takes its name from the French 'coller'). It takes a visual journey through Surrealism, Pop Art and Postmodernism. And it reveals how architects starting with Mies van der Rohe adopted the cut-and-paste technique to bring their work alive. The curators reverentially refer to this architectural overlap as 'collage city'; extensive layering brings a depth to these works that is almost immersive.

En route, this many-layered showcase gives a history of the past century, a lesson that goes beyond the crèche into a far higher realm.

a poster for Berlin's Symphony of the Metropolis, 1927, by an unknown artist

A collage of collages includes, clockwise, from upper left, 'The Evil Genius of a King', 1914-15, by Giorgio de Chirico; a poster for Berlin's Symphony of the Metropolis, 1927, by an unknown artist; 'The Maypole (Empire State Building)', 1932, by Edward Steichen; 'Collage', 1926, by Ivo Pannaggi; and an excerpt from the film 'Chelovek S. Kino-apparatom (The man with the movie camera)', 1929, by Dziga Vertov.

(Image credit: Thomas Griesel)

A chromogenic colour print by Michael Wesely (left) and 'Untitled from the series Fictions', 2009, by Filip Dujardin (right).

'4 April 1997 - 4 June 1999, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin', a chromogenic colour print by Michael Wesely (left) and 'Untitled from the series Fictions', 2009, by Filip Dujardin (right).

(Image credit: Thomas Griesel)

'Metropolis

'Metropolis', 1923, by Paul Citroen

(Image credit: Paul Citroen)

Archigram 1961 - 74 (Museum für Gestaltung)

'Archigram 1961 - 74 (Museum für Gestaltung)', 1995, by Ralph Schraivogel

(Image credit: Ralph Schraivogel)

A cut-and-paste reproduction

A cut-and-paste reproduction from 1954 called 'Convention Hall Project, Chicago. Interior perspective', by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

(Image credit: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

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Ellen Himelfarb

Based in London, Ellen Himelfarb travels widely for her reports on architecture and design. Her words appear in The Times, The Telegraph, The World of Interiors, and The Globe and Mail in her native Canada. She has worked with Wallpaper* since 2006.