The Fine Art of Collage with Gretchen Bierbaum

Everyday Creation

In 1982, collage artist Gretchen Bierbaum founded The National Collage Society, Inc., which is still going strong. Gretchen is the president of the NCS, which promotes the advancement of collage as a major art medium and educates the public through exhibits, workshops, lectures and publications.
In this episode, Gretchen talks about her "light-bulb moment" that led to her becoming a collage artist. She studied Islamic art in Iran, became an art educator and administrator, and has enjoyed doing bicentennial and other commissions, including a painting that hangs in the dining room of one of the Sea Wolf nuclear submarines.

She's the author of "Collage in all Dimensions," published in 2005. The book traces the history of collage as a fine art. Although collage existed in many craft forms prior to the 20th century, it was not until 1912 that Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were the first historically significant artists to glue collage pieces into paintings. The art form has evolved ever since.
Gretchen wrote an e-book, "Creating Collage in all Dimensions — Techniques to Alter and Transfer Images," in 2010. Both of her books are available from the bookstore on the National Collage Society's website, where you also can view the winning entries in the society's annual exhibitions.
Another item in the store that caught my eye was a cachet, which is a printed design added to an envelope to commemorate a special event. The NCS cachet honors Romare Bearden, an American artist whose 1988 obituary in The New York Times described him as "the nation's foremost collagist."
On September 28, 2011, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Romare Bearden stamp in four different collage designs. Each NCS cachet features one of those designs along with a postmark and a print of an original collage by Gretchen titled, "Homage to Romare." The cachet also commemorates 100 years of collage as a fine art. I ordered one for myself — it's cool!
You can go to the society's website to purchase her books, the show catalogs or the cachet.
For more about the NCS, follow the society on Facebook. The society also is listed in Kolaj Magazine's International Directory of Collage Communities.
This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to the show!
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Chapters

1. The Founding of the NCS (00:01:15)

2. Collage is Not Like Kleenex! (00:04:27)

3. Gretchen's Artistic Path (00:06:55)

4. Her Submarine Commission (00:08:27)

5. "Collage in all Dimensions" (00:11:20)

6. Genius Compositions, Pleasing or Not (00:15:09)

7. Lots of Layers, Like Life (00:16:30)

8. A Year in Iran (00:19:11)

9. Favorite Works (00:21:35)