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Early Mixed Media Artists
The term mixed media means an artwork made with one or more material. The most popular use of mixed media became a major trend in the development of art in the 20th century. The most prevalent is collage. The art critic Clement Greenberg suggested that collage, a form of mixed media in which numerous things are merged in a single composition, was one of the most important methods in the development of modern art. Greenberg places the beginning of collage in the work of Pablo Picasso as well as Georges Braque in the years between 1911 and 1913. Braque’s “Fruit Dish” (1912) is recognized by Greenberg as one of the 1st real mixed media paintings, and Picasso’s “Guitar” (1913) is an early collage which had significant ramifications for future years of art in the 20th century.
The earliest mixed media artists, though they were not referred to as mixed media artists, artists of the Byzantine Empire, 330 to 1453 A.D., frequently used gilded gold leaf on their paintings, mosaics, frescoes and manuscripts. The arts declined in the Dark Ages, but blossomed with the coming of the Renaissance. In addition to utilizing tempera, a paint medium that dates to ancient Egypt, oil painting became popular. Numerous artists applied gold leaf to painted wood panels to accomplish vibrant skies or glowing halos on religious panels.
The Cubist art movement started out in Europe during the early years of the 20th century. It broke from hundreds of years of traditional painting by depicting objects as three-dimensional images that could be painted from several perspectives. Space wasn’t any longer restricted to the flat canvas; by using an analytical system, artists can fragment and change viewpoints.
Pablo Picasso along with Georges Braque are regarded as the fathers of Cubism. Even though they were doing work separately without communication between them, both artists produced works that were very similar. By breaking down art to dimensional points of reference, they worked with space and form rather than realistic images. In 1912, Picasso created his 1st real mixed media piece, “Still Life with Chair Caning.” He pasted paper and also oilcloth to canvas and combined them with painted areas. From 1912, Picasso used mixed media methods to dimensional sculpture. The “Glass of Absinthe” done in 1914 is a vertical piece with lots of disparate objects assembled together, while “Still Life” involved sticking scraps of wood plus a bit of upholstery fringe together and painting them. A lot more life-like is his 1923 piece “The Lovers” which was completed using ink, watercolour paints and also charcoal on paper.
Mixed media art in the 21st century can be traced from sketching starting the work of early artists. Mixed media has become an accessible art form for both amateur and professional artists. Assemblage and collage can be found mixed with acrylic and watercolour painting, rubber-stamped art, sculpture and altered books. Fabric, torn papers, inks, glitter as well as beads are finding their way into works of fine art and also commercial items such as greeting cards and even quilts. The way forward for mixed media, it appears, is limited only by the imagination of artists and anything they can get their hands on.
Quinacridone Gold Extra Fine Watercolor by DANIEL SMITH