Junk art

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Junk art. Art constructed from the waste products of urban life. In so far as Junk art represented a revolt against traditional materials and a desire to show that works of art can be constructed from the humblest and most worthless things, it may be plausibly traced back to Cubist collages, Duchamp's ready-mades, and the work of Kurt Schwitters. However, it is not until the 1950s that it is possible to speak of a Junk movement, particularly with the work of Robert Rauschenberg, who used rags and tatters of cloth, torn reproductions, and other waste materials in his combine paintings. Lawrence Alloway, in 1961, was the first to apply the name ‘Junk art’ to such works, and the term was then extended to sculpture made from scrap metal, broken machine parts, used timber, and so on. Californian Funk art sometimes made use of similar materials. The Junk art of the USA had analogies in the work of Tàpies and others in Spain, Burri and Arte Povera in Italy, and similar movements in most European countries and in Japan, where the refuse left over from the Second World War was sometimes converted to artistic use.

Junk art. Art constructed from the waste products of urban life. In so far as Junk art represented a revolt against traditional materials and a desire to show that works of art can be constructed from the humblest and most worthless things, it may be plausibly traced back to Cubist collages, Duchamp's ready-mades, and the work of Kurt Schwitters. However, it is not until the 1950s that it is possible to speak of a Junk movement, particularly with the work of Robert Rauschenberg, who used rags and tatters of cloth, torn reproductions, and other waste materials in his combine paintings. Lawrence Alloway, in 1961, was the first to apply the name ‘Junk art’ to such works, and the term was then extended to sculpture made from scrap metal, broken machine parts, used timber, and so on. Californian Funk art sometimes made use of similar materials. The Junk art of the USA had analogies in the work of Tàpies and others in Spain, Burri and Arte Povera in Italy, and similar movements in most European countries and in Japan, where debris from the Second World War was sometimes converted to artistic use.

Junk art. Art constructed from the waste products of urban life. In so far as Junk art represented a revolt against traditional materials and a desire to show that works of art can be constructed from the humblest and most worthless things, it may be plausibly traced back to Cubist collages, Duchamp's ready-mades, and the work of Kurt Schwitters. However, it is not until the 1950s that it is possible to speak of a Junk movement, particularly with the work of Robert Rauschenberg, who used rags and tatters of cloth, torn reproductions, and other waste materials in his combine paintings. Lawrence Alloway, in 1961, was the first to apply the name ‘Junk art’ to such works, and the term was then extended to sculpture made from scrap metal, used timber, and so on. Californian Funk art sometimes made use of similar materials. The Junk art of the USA had analogies in the work of Tàpies and others in Spain, Burri and Arte Povera in Italy, and similar movements in most European countries and in Japan, where debris from the Second World War was sometimes converted to artistic use.