From Life magazine, 1943, the writer seems undecided as to the validity of collage, calling Vail 'a real master' of a medium he appears to dismiss. Collage is 'quietly threatening to become a fad'? Ha-ha - tell Picasso! What a fool. '43 was was too soon after the event to recognise Dada as a key artistic movement rather than 'another harmless little hoax', perhaps, although I doubt that the idiot would acknowledge that if he were alive today.
Laurence Vail had a famous wife in Peggy Guggenheim, as well as knowing Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp in Paris, where he was known as 'the king of bohemians', no less.
More on Laurence Vail here on the Guggenheim collection site.
I love looking at collage - just I'm crap at doing it myself.
ReplyDeleteDo you like Kurt Schwitters by any chance? Hoping to catch 'Schwitters In Britain' at the Tate while it's on.
No - he's rubbish - joke! Of course, C.
ReplyDeleteMany have used the medium brilliantly in the last 100 or so years. As you'll have guessed, it's a favourite of mine...because I can't draw or paint! Not been to the exhibition yet; waiting for the crowds to thin out, hopefully.