Collage

Collage is a form of art in which pieces of paper and stuff are glued together on a backing to make an assemblage.

Kurt Schwitters was a German artist who is known for his collages:



I think it's really interesting how postmodern this looks even though it's from the early twentieth century



This piece - "The Hitler Gang"- is more subtle but I think the way paint and book paper and paper from miscellaneous items  are blended together gives the whole collage a striking quality.



This third one looks more like a Cubist painting than a collage, which I find really cool.



The And Picture

This one is humorous in the way all the attention is focused around the word "and" (or 'und')



And this one gives off a fantastical vibe, and is visually interesting in the way it uses objects to depict parts of a face.

Off the Canvas

Sandpainting is a form of two-dimensional art created in many traditional societies. It's interesting because of its comparative impermanence. However, it can be fixed into place:




Another cool nontraditional surface for painting is glass:





This last one is a Chinese reverse glass painting from the 1700's (really!)




It's called a reverse glass painting because it's made by painting on glass then flipping it around.



Reverse glass painting is one of the coolest things I've seen. It looks so much like regular painting, but the thought that it's on glass instead of canvas is shocking.

It's a really hard art form because there's no room for mistakes: everything you paint will show up, because everything is being done backwards. You start by painting the foreground and then you paint the background.