MONTAGE:
Yes we’re back to the wonderful world of montage / photomontage… The technique of cutting and pasting different images together to form a new image that invariably gives the viewer food for thought… It can be political, disturbing, realist, illusionistic, critical, naturalistic, symbolic and much more. Made famous by the ‘anti-art’ Dada movement of the early 20th Century whose aim was to make their work ‘a stab in the eye of good taste,’ whilst rejecting the elitist values of the art world. One of the most famous of the early purveyors of photomontage is Dadaist turned communist, German born, John Heartfield, his anti-Nazi images were both analytical and satirical. Some examples of which can be found below:
John Heartfield – Adolf the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spits Tin.
Courtesy of: http://www.johnheartfield.com/ [Accessed 18 February 2015]
Heartfield’s satirical take of Hitler swallowing the gold of his supporters, (big businesses), and spitting out junk via the political rhetoric he became famous for.
John Heartfield – The Executioner and Justice.
Courtesy of: http://www.johnheartfield.com/ [Accessed 18 February 2015]
Taken from the cover AIZ magazine in 1933, it represents the ‘trial’ of those allegedly guilty of starting the fire in the German Reichstag (parliament).
John Heartfield – Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles.
Courtesy of: http://www.johnheartfield.com/ [Accessed 18 February 2015]
Heartfield’s cover for a Kurt Tucholsky book that took an irreverent look at the Weimar Republic published in 1929.
Montage has also been described as a form of ‘critical realism,’ this is where an image can adequately represent reality. Bear in mind that the ‘reality’ in question is not just surface appearances, but underlying causes or hidden processes that shape our experience of life…
realism: an attempt to depict a real state of affairs, shows what is really happening, the reality underlying appearances, (always negotiable, always political). Must be distinguished from other terms also used in the world of montage…
illusionism: an attempt to construct something which seems real, which presents to us a vivid artifice so that the impossible seems possible, or what doesn’t exist appears to exist.
naturalism: resembles nature, without necessarily attempting to represent the truth of a situation.
symbolism: an attempt to communicate through the use of symbols, to use an image or icon to stand for something else.
What follows are a selection of photomontage’s that I believe represent the concepts mentioned above:
Tom Chambers – Prom Gown #3
Courtesy of: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ [Accessed 19 February 2015]
Realist – The power of nature over humanity and the inevitability of death.
Linder Sterling – T.V. Sex.
Courtesy of: Boo-Hooray Gallery.
Illusionistic – Although the humanoid creations are obviously illusionary, the fact that they are very human-like in their appearance gives the illusion that they could exist.
MMXX – Forggensee Panorama
Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/ [Accessed 19 February 2015]
Naturalistic – At first glance this is a very naturalistic view, but you soon see another world unfolding, culminating with planet earth herself hidden in the clouds, all of which are reflected in the lake. It could be seen as a reflection of man & nature, not necessarily in harmony, despite the idealistic scene.
Gustav Klutsis – Lets Fulfill the Plan of Great Works.
Courtesy of: http://www.moma.org/ [Accessed 19 February 2015]
Symbolic – This symbolic use of the hand encapsulating many hands was used by the USSR on several different posters as part of the Soviet propaganda machine.
These concepts can also be combined: symbolic & realist / realist & naturalistic / naturalist, realistic & symbolic…. Images can be juxtaposed, used for propaganda purposes as well as in the world of advertising, sometimes in nefarious ways to suit the ideology of those in power. It could be said that those in power construct their images deceptively, manipulating them to show a false image of the world around them, hoping to fool the masses and therefore maintain their power. Whereas people like Heartfield and the Dadaists would use montage to disrupt, detonate and distort the dominant ways in which we were accustomed to seeing the world, manipulating their images explicitly, revealing their own construction and so challenging our preconceptions of what ‘fits’ with what!!!
Photo-Media, Year 2 - Term 2!!! 