From the seminal moment in 1908 when the young Picasso took a piece of brown card pasted with a ‘Magasins du Louvre’ label and converted it into a new kind of picture, collage has been at the very heart of modern art, leaving its mark on almost every art movement since, from Dada and Constructivism, via Surrealism, Pop and Situationism, to the digital techniques of today.

This book, the first comprehensive survey of the technique, explores in full the theoretical implications and political messages behind the work of the past century, explaining how the process was intimately linked to other revolutions in art practice. It covers the many off-shoots of collage, including assemblage, montage, photo-montage and décollage, as well as related practices such as détournement. Along the way it outlines a new vision of modern art springing from this most simple and democratic of techniques.

Brandon Taylor is Professor in the History of Art, University of Southampton. His other publications include Art and Literature Under the Bolsheviks, Art for the Nation: Exhibitions and the London Public and Art Today.