PORTLAND — The Portland Museum of Art is calling attention to the world of collages with the exhibition “Collage: Piecing It Together,” on view through Feb. 28.

Featuring about 25 works from the museum’s collection and loans from contemporary Maine artists, the exhibit covers the introduction of collage in Europe in the early 20th century by artists such as Kurt Schwitters and Jean Arp to present-day works by Tom Hall, Aaron Stephan and other Maine artists.

The exhibition will also cover a wide range of collage techniques, including abstract works pieced together from newsprint and colored papers, collaged elements incorporated into drawings and prints, paintings that include collaged figurative elements, and photomontages.

Collage is a work of art made from the assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.

It became a distinctive part of the modern movement in the early 20th century, notably deployed by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso at the height of synthetic cubism, and it continues to be an important aspect of the visual arts in Maine today.
The exhibition demonstrates how collages by renowned German modernist Kurt Schwitters and Surrealists Jean Arp and Joan Miró influenced the work of Abstract Expressionists.

In Maine today, artists continue to draw on the inventive nature of collage for works in a variety of media, such as Henry Wolyniec’s abstract collotypes that combine printmaking and traditional cut-paper compositions; Hall’s landscape paintings with their found-paper elements; and Stephan’s portraits composed of deconstructed anatomy book illustrations.

Related program
On Saturday, Jan. 23, the PMA will host a panel discussion with artists in the “Collage: Piecing It Together” exhibit. Stephan, Hall and Kate Cheney Chappell will discuss how they approach this complex medium and why they are drawn to it.
The panel discussion will run from 11 a.m. to noon. Free with museum admission. A reception will follow in the McLellan House.