A trip to any retail store will put you face to face with aisles bursting of arts and crafts supplies: patterned paper, colorful pens, jagged scissors. These are the tools of devoted scrap-bookers; the basic necessities for every elementary school project. However, the ability to mix and match different materials to achieve the perfect balance of randomness derives from a fine art tradition.

At the close of the nineteenth century, Avant-Garde artists created art from everyday materials. Artists like Picasso and Hannah Hoch used newspaper and fabric scraps to create collages combining image and text which challenged the established medium of oil painting. While it may take time to decipher the puns and absurdities of some of these pairings, collages and other works of mixed mediums are wonderfully filled with inconsistent textures in devotion to the materials itself, allowing for a raw viewing experience.

Scraping chic. Let FADA's collection of collages inspire you.

Benny Andrews. The Beach. Oil and collage on canvas. Vincent Vallarino Fine Art.  Click to inquire. 

Christo.  Av. Champs Elysees, 1992.  Leslie Sacks Fine Art.  Click to inquire.

Viktor IV. Criminal Sun. Leslie Sacks Fine Art.  Click to inquire. 

Raphael Mazzucco. Parallels. Rosenbaum Contemporary Gallery. Click to inquire. 

Jack Roth, Untitled Collage, Vincent Vallarino Fine Art.  Click to inquire.