collage
[kuh-lahzh, koh-]
- a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope.
- a work of art produced by this technique.Compare assemblage(def 3).
- an assemblage or occurrence of diverse elements or fragments in unlikely or unexpected juxtaposition: The experimental play is a collage of sudden scene shifts, long monologues, musical interludes, and slapstick.
- a film that presents a series of seemingly unrelated scenes or images or shifts from one scene or image to another suddenly and without transition.
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- to make a collage of: The artist has collaged old photos, cartoon figures, and telephone numbers into a unique work of art.
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Origin of collage
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for collage
Contemporary Examples
Galeria is a collage of quotations: columns, chrome black tables, panels with English paisley fabric.
An Afghan instructor explained the concept of collage in Dari.
“This is my collage about a farm,” he said pointing out a rake, plant, and chicken.
The risk with collage is that it can seem slapdash or myopic, its meaning opaque to anyone but the artist.
Hartigan based it on a collage of Life magazine snippets that included ads for toothpaste and food shots.
Historical Examples
He held in horror this shameful half-marriage that the language of slang had baptized, as with a stain: Collage.
His Excellency the MinisterJules Claretie
The artistic technique of collage is based on a logic of choices beyond those of realistic representations.
The Civilization of IlliteracyMihai Nadin
Collage, as a technique, anticipates the generalized stage of sampling and compositing.
The Civilization of IlliteracyMihai Nadin
The convention of reading is broken; the text is manipulated like an image and offered as a collage to the reader.
The Civilization of IlliteracyMihai Nadin
In the whiche Universite is no Collage founded by eny quene of England hidertoward.
Cambridge and its StoryCharles William Stubbs
collage
- an art form in which compositions are made out of pieces of paper, cloth, photographs, and other miscellaneous objects, juxtaposed and pasted on a dry ground
- a composition made in this way
- any work, such as a piece of music, created by combining unrelated styles
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Word Origin
C20: French, from coller to stick, from colle glue, from Greek kolla
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for collage
n.
1919, from French collage "a pasting," from Old French coller "to glue," from Greek kolla "glue." Earliest reference is in Wyndham Lewis.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper