Mixed media is a term used to describe artworks composed from a combination of different media or materials
The Tate Modern Museum: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/mixed-media
Humans have been combining materials in everyday objects and art for thousands of years, but it wasn’t classified as a separate art form. In the early 20th century, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques experimented with collages as part of the Cubist movement. Art historians generally agree that these experimentations are the birth of mixed media art.
Dada artists continued to incorporate found objects and images from mass media into their collage and readymade artworks. Decades later, the large art installations of the late 1960s and 1970s continued to challenge the art world with the use of mass-produced materials such as magazine clippings, packaging material, paints, and found objects.
Mixed media art is different from multi-media art, which can include electronic, video, audio, and computerized components. The following art types are classified as mixed media:
- Collage
- Découpage
- Assemblage
- Found Art
- Altered books
- Wet and Dry Media used together
Selected Mixed Media Artworks
Still Life with Chair Caning – Pablo Picasso
Bicycle Wheel – Marcel Duchamp
Self-Obliteration No. 1 – Yayoi Kusama
Indestructible Object – Man Ray
Registration for PAS is open through July with a finite number of spaces available.
Has your art been influenced by mixed media artists of the past or present? Let us know in the comments.