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Mixed Media Art: A Comprehensive Overview

Mixed Media Art: A Comprehensive Overview

Mixed media art is a visual art form that involves the use of more than one medium or material to create a new whole. This art form has been around for centuries, but it gained significant popularity in the 20th century with the advent of movements like Cubism and Dada. Today, mixed media art continues to be a popular form for artists, with different forms like wet media and markings being explored....

Mixed Media Art: A Comprehensive Overview



Mixed media art is a visual art form that involves the use of more than one medium or material to create a new whole. This art form has been around for centuries, but it gained significant popularity in the 20th century with the advent of movements like Cubism and Dada. Today, mixed media art continues to be a popular form for artists, with different forms like wet media and markings being explored.

History of Mixed Media Art


The first modern artwork to be considered mixed media is Pablo Picasso's 1912 collage Still Life with Chair Caning, which used paper, cloth, paint, and rope to create a pseudo-3D effect. The influence of movements like Cubism and Dada contributed to the mixed media's growth in popularity throughout the 20th century with artists like Henri Matisse, Joseph Cornell, Jean Dubuffet, and Ellsworth Kelly adopting it. This led to further innovations like installations in the late 20th century.

Types of Mixed Media Art


Mixed media art can be differentiated into distinct types, some of which are:

  • Collage: This is an art form which involves combining different materials like ribbons, newspaper clippings, photographs etc. to create a new whole.


  • Assemblage: This is a 3-dimensional variant of the collage with elements jutting in or out of a defined substrate, or an entirely 3-D arrangement of objects and/or sculptures.


  • Found object art: These are objects that are found and used by artists and incorporated into artworks because of their perceived artistic value. It was popularized by the conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp.


  • Altered books: This is a specific form where the artist will reuse a book by modifying/altering it physically for use in the work. This can involve physically cutting and pasting pages to change the contents of the book or using the materials of the book as contents for an art piece.


  • Wet and Dry Media: Wet media consists of materials such as paints and inks that use some sort of liquidity in their usage or composition. Dry materials (such as pencils, charcoal, and crayons) are lacking this inherent liquidity. Using wet and dry media in conjunction is considered mixed media for its combination of inherently differing media to create a finalized piece.


Examples of Mixed Media Artwork


Here are some examples of mixed media artwork:

  • Still Life with Chair Caning: Picasso's piece depicts what can be seen as a table with a cut lemon, a knife, a napkin and a newspaper among other discernible objects. It is elliptical (with speculation that the work itself could be depicting a porthole) and uses a piece of rope to form its edge. Paper and cloth are used for the objects present on the table.


  • Angel of Anarchy: Eileen Agar's 1937 sculpture is a modified bust of Joseph Bard, which was covered by paper and fur. When this was lost, she made a 1940 variation which shrouded and blinded the figure with feathers, beads and cloth creating an entirely different perspective on the sculpture.


Mixed Media Artists


Here are some notable mixed media artists:

  • Marcelo Bonevardi: Marcelo Bonevardi (1929–1994) was a Latin American avant-garde artist known for his mixed media pieces. A native of Argentina, Bonevardi spent the greater part of his career in New York City, where he absorbed avant-garde practices and influences such as abstraction and primitivism, using them to invent a pictorial and symbolic language with which ...


  • Manolo Valdés: Manolo Valdés (born 1942) is a Spanish artist residing in New York, working in paint, sculpture, and mixed media. He introduced to Spain a form of expression that combined political and social obligations with humor and irony.


Museums with Mixed Media Art


Here are some museums with mixed media art:

  • The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Canada: Located in the city of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery is a public art gallery that showcases a diverse collection of national and international art. Established in 1888, it was the first permanent art gallery in New Zealand and the second public art gallery in t


  • Tate Britain (London, United Kingdom): Tate Britain is a museum in London that houses a significant collection of British art from the 16th century to the present day. It is one of four Tate galleries and is part of the Tate network.


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