collage

(from French coller, “to glue”) Pictorial technique of applying printed or found materials (e.g., newspaper, fabric, wallpaper) to a flat surface, often in combination with painting. Long popular as a pastime for children and amateurs, it was first given serious attention as an art technique by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1912–13. Many other 20th-century artists produced collages, including Juan Gris, Henri Matisse, Joseph Cornell, and Max Ernst. In the 1960s collage was employed as a major form of Pop art, exemplified in the work of Robert Rauschenberg.