Universal Principles of Art

53 MIXED MEDIA AND MULTIMEDIA

COMBINING MATERIALS AND MEDIUMS FOR STRIKING EFFECTS

One of the features of modern Western art is its embrace of combinations of media. Traditionally, artists have worked in one medium at a time, but in the mid-nineteenth century, a new taste for experimentation began. Edgar Degas (1834–1917), for example, combined monoprints with pastel to create a hybrid form. The twentieth century saw a broadening of this approach. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Georges Braque (1882–1963) combined collage and painting while Paul Klee (1879–1940) often combined pen and ink, watercolor, collage, and oil in the same work. Later in the century, several Pop artists, including Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) and Andy Warhol (1928–87), ...