Art | December 11, 2020
Mash-up: The Enduring Fusion of High Art and Mass Culture
Mash-up: The Enduring Fusion of High Art and Mass Culture
In 1912 at his Boulevard Raspail studio in Montparnasse, Picasso hung a changing installation of collages on a beige wall over a cot scattered with pillows and papers. He displayed six or seven pieces of new work selected from the nearly hundred collages he had created that year. Most notably, he shared variations on a study of a guitar, a paste-up of wallpaper and cardboard on newsprint. When artists heard about Picasso’s new work, they flocked to his small studio to get a look. Intrigued by the method, futurists such as Gino Severini, Umberto Boccioni, and Giacomo Balla began using collage as a method of enriching the surfaces of their works. Picasso’s displays of simple cutting and pasting of the detritus of daily life was declared “a pasted-paper revolution.” The idea moved quickly; collage becoming a favorite medium among international modernists for its playful, ephemeral style and quick, spontaneous process—what Picasso called “one mad rush.”
If you are a student, faculty member, or staff member at an institution whose library subscribes to Project Muse, you can read this piece and the full archives of the Missouri Review for free. Check this list to see if your library is a Project Muse subscriber.
Want to read more?
Subscribe TodaySEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT

Art
Dec 11 2020
Mash-up: The Enduring Fusion of High Art and Mass Culture
Mash-up: The Enduring Fusion of High Art and Mass Culture In 1912 at his Boulevard Raspail studio in Montparnasse, Picasso hung a changing installation of collages on a beige wall… read more

Art
Jun 19 2020
Neo Rococo: The Work of Nine Contemporary Artists
“We must begin by saying to ourselves that we have nothing else to do in the world but seek pleasant sensations and feelings.” —Madame du Châtelet, natural philosopher, mathematician, and… read more

Art
Feb 11 2020
Art Feature
When visiting a city, I take solitary, late-night walks, enjoying the feeling of being both lost and at home. Cities at night with their empty streets become a dreamscape of… read more