Rare Books

Metaphysics in jars : collagraphs

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Description: "The collagraphs are a collaborative project. They are called collagraphs because the image is that of a collage, and the actual print is a photograph. Stephen Aldrich creates collages primarily from nineteenth century woodcuts and steel engravings, taken from children's, scientific, art, and travel books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries ... Walton Mendelson photographs the collages. The photographic surface tends to smoothen the image, making it appear as if it had been engraved at one time"--From introduction.
Type: Rare Books(Opens in new tab)
Publication date: [2001]
Call number: 653157
Creator: Aldrich, Stephen(Opens in new tab)
ISBN: 1590050150; 9781590050156
Provenance: Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, August 2020.

Victorian album of collages

Manuscripts

This album is composed of 12 original collages inserted into decorated paper-covered front and rear boards. Collages are made with paper, silk ribbons, flowers, dyed wool, shells, leaves, cut-outs from various printed sources, and lithographs. The collagist was likely an Irish Catholic young woman, either from or living in Avoca, Wicklow County, Ireland (there is a collage page with the title "Sweet Vale Avoca"). Each collage speaks to a different theme ranging from rural life, nature, a childhood home, childhood, youth, communion, perceptions of old age, and a haunted house. Each collage has a title and handwritten pasted-down captions, some coming from popular songs and verse including Thomas Moore's "The Meeting of the Waters." Housed in a slip case with gilt title "ALBUM ANGLAIS."

mssHM 84002

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Drop of dreams

Rare Books

"The collages Okanoue began creating as a student at Bunka Gakuin College, which she entered to study fashion drawing, fluttered to earth as pure, private 'droplets of dreams' unrelated to artistic ambition ... Toshiko Okanoue's photo collages are, if we are to look at them in terms of where they fit into artistic lineages, unquestionably Surrealist; they instantly call to mind the collages of Max Ernst. Shuzo Takiguchi, who discovered Okanoue, insisted, however, that her work was not derivative ... Okanoue has said that she often went in search of collage materials to the Seishido bookstore, which had stacks of American illustrated magazines such as Life and Vogue out in front ... To Okanoue, whose country had been at war throughout her girlhood, the images with which those American magazines were filled were undoubtedly like dreams from another world--as they would have been to almost any Japanese person at that time. But the dreams that she assembled by quietly cutting out photographs from those illustrated magazine and gluing them together opened doors to transposing and rearranging the dreams that materialistic American civilization so lavishly spun ... With this exhibition, the dream droplets that Toshiko Okanoue sowed in mid twentieth century Japan will gently make their presence felt here at the beginning of a new century. And once again women will without a doubt hear these words in her collages: We are free!"--From introduction.

653119

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Artwork

Manuscripts

Primarily collages Babitz made between 1967 and 1970, using magazine clippings, paper, and cardboard. Collage subjects include musician friends and acquaintances including Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Stephen Stills, Ginger Baker, and Noel Harrison; commissioned work featuring Marilyn Monroe and Liza Minnelli; and pastoral and abstract scenes. There is also a 1917 watercolor by Babitz family friend Kate Steinitz, and an undated drawing by Eve Babitz's mother, Mae Babitz.

mssBabitz

Parallel of historical ornament

Visual Materials

Image of a collage of Greek architectural and design elements with captions, including examples of columns, relief designs, and ornaments from vases and pavements.

priJLC_PRG_002024

Jack London

Manuscripts

Photo collage of Jack London. In main image London crouches on ice with curling brush and stone. In upper right corner image London's head and shoulders are cropped with a circular border.

mssJL JLP 185

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Eve Babitz collage

Visual Materials

A collage by Eve Babitz that likely depicts Henry James and Edith Wharton and was gifted by the artist to her former partner and fellow writer Dan Wakefield. The female figure has been cut out of the photographic print and an image of clouds at sunset has been placed in the negative space. Babitz's signature and date are at the lower right corner. The collage is mounted on a board.

priPEF 105

Metaphysics in jars : collagraphs

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Victorian album of collages

Drop of dreams

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