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Romare Bearden, Mysteries II  1964

Carol Rama, Bricolage  1968

Bricolage 1968 is a work on Masonite with collaged elements by the Italian artist Carol Rama. It is thickly painted with brown, yellow, red and black paint, with four groupings of dolls’ eyes embedded in the surface. It measures 700 by 600 millimetres, a size which is consistent with that of Rama’s other works of this period. It was made in Turin and is signed and dated in the lower left corner. The title is a French word for something that has been constructed from a diverse range of objects and materials.

Kurt Schwitters, (Relief in Relief) &²Ô²ú²õ±è;³¦.1942–5

Schwitters was associated with the irreverent dada movement in 1920s Germany. He developed idiosyncratic forms of collage that combined the discarded ephemera of everyday life such as bus tickets and labels with other materials, coining the nonsense term Merz to describe his technique.Schwitters left Germany in the 1930s, arriving in Britain via Norway and spending over a year in internment camps before moving in 1941 to London, where he made this work. Schwitters often took months over his constructions, searching for appropriate elements.

Gallery label, September 2016

Carol Rama, Black Phase  1974

In the early 1970s Rama began to use rubber inner tubes and electric wires in her collages. Based in the industrial city of Turin, Italy, she produced many works using materials associated with mass production. Rama was aware of 1960s and 70s art movements which experimented with industrial materials and simplified forms, such as minimalism or Italy’s arte povera. However, the manufacturing references in works such as Black Phase relate instead to Rama’s various childhood experiences. Her family ran a small-scale car and bicycle factory which was forced to close, leading to a time of significant upheaval. The black fabric areas in her rubber collages hint at dark times in the artist’s life.

Gallery label, November 2021

Benode Behari Mukherjee, Three Figures  c.1960

Three Figures c.1960 is a paper collage on card that depicts two orange-coloured, seated individuals on the left and a larger beige one on the right who is dressed in red and green striped attire. The orange figures appear as if in profile and look towards the larger individual, who is seen frontally. Surrounding them is a set of abstract forms in orange, yellow and blue, perhaps representing domestic objects and a screen or wall. All of the forms in the composition are made from pieces of cut paper in bright hues that are pasted onto beige-coloured card.

Benode Behari Mukherjee, Game  c.1960

Game c.1960 depicts two figures seated cross-legged on the floor, facing one another and playing a board game. The figure on the left gestures over the board, while the one on the right seems to rest back as if awaiting their next turn. The shapes in the composition are formed from pieces of cut paper in bold, bright colours that include purple, yellow, red, green, dark blue and black. These are pasted onto beige-coloured card to form the scene, with pencil lines visible around the figures, especially in the areas of their heads and arms.

Benode Behari Mukherjee, Still Life with Key  c.1965

Still Life with Key c.1965 is a paper collage on card that features an array of coloured shapes including triangles, circles, squares, rhomboids and waves. These are laid over a central block of collaged newspaper, which features both advertisements and columns of text. At the top of the composition is a key shape formed from black and pink paper. All of the forms in the work are made from pieces of cut paper in bright hues that are pasted onto beige-coloured card.

Joan Miró, The Tightrope Walker  1970

Miró often used discarded materials, some of them discovered in the foundry. His aim was to create what he called an ‘unlikely marriage of recognisable forms’. The body of the tightrope walker is made from a child's doll, cast into bronze. The base on which it rests is the cone through which the bronze was poured, while the nails originally held the mould together. The mottled and textured surface results from acid deposits left by the casting process. Each of these elements has an expressive role within the sculpture which, like much of Miró's work, combines humour with suggestions of violence.

Gallery label, July 2013