Joe Tilson (1928-2023)
I found this brilliant nostalgic 15 minute film of Joe Tilson talking about his work from 1964. It was made for the BBC arts programme of the time, Monitor. He talks about so many interesting things, from how we see the world, and what inspires him to make art. His three dimensional constructions combine traditional woodwork techniques (having worked as a joiner as a teenager), with the Pop Art ideas of the time.
Robert Rauschenberg (1925- 2008)
American artist Robert Rauschenberg strongly believed that creative practitioners could serve as catalysts for social change; that artists could act as the ‘gap’ between art and life. In the mid 1950s, he began to make ‘Combines’, montaging newsworthy, real-world images and objects, using a range of two and three dimensional media. Have a look at this webpage from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation website, to learn about the context in which nine of his works were made, including work about the moon landing and work made for the first ever Earth Day.
Peter Blake (1932- )
As you are probably aware, this collage by British pop artist, Peter Blake, was made for the front cover of the Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band. According to Blake, ‘the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park. This gradually evolved into its final form, which as seen, shows the Beatles as the Sgt. Pepper band surrounded by a large group of their heroes rendered as life sized cut-out figures.’
In this nice three minute Tate Shot film, we see Peter Blake in his studio, talking about his work. Halfway through, he talks about a similar collage he was making at the time of filming.
And here, the BBC writes about how Blake recreated the collage for his 80th birthday, but, due to copyright rules, he had to update the famous people he included.
Update:
For some additional reading, you might want to visit this blog post which includes collage, or this 3 minute video about Pop Art, called ‘In The Media’, which I put together in 2020 when students were working from home.