1911 -What a Life! Fine Art Collage beginnings
Do you know the word of Sir Peter Blake? No relation to me that I’m aware of however i’ve only recently known of his work.. Despite the rather famous cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, I just never made the connection til I began in earnest to look at the collage work of Pop Artists.
There was a show Mr. Blake put together in 2000 with the Tate Gallery in Liverpool, Peter Blake About Collage. The works gathered together for that show and specifically noted in the document by Dawn Ades, Collage: A Brief History suggested I dig for the 1911 publication called What a Life! which Ades suggests pre-dates the Picasso/Barque invention of papier colle. I’d never heard of this publication previously..but what an exciting precursor!
Happily this publication has been scanned in its entirety.
http://www.fulltable.com/vts/m/montage/evl.htm
Enjoy!
