The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage & Construction (IMCAC) recently opened in an historic building in the Midtown district of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Located on the second floor, the IMCAC’s archives include over 20,000 works of collage, assemblage, mail art and Fluxus objects, as well as space for collage parties and workshops. The ground floor is home to Nisa Touchon Fine Art, Santa Fe, a commercial gallery focused on collage and assemblage by artists who have participated in IMCAC projects in the past. Founded in 1996, IMCAC is dedicated to the collection, study and exhibition of collage, assemblage, construction, montage, photomontage, digital collage, concrete poetry, collage poetry, Fluxus, sound collage, and other constructive arts.
The article “Post-Dogmatic Collecting: The naissance of the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction” appears in Kolaj #13. Below are some highlights from the article. To read the entire article, PURCHASE KOLAJ #13 or SUBSCRIBE.
Cecil Touchon recalls how a discussion in 1987 between three art students became an internet-driven, democratic, art museum focused on collage.
“The three of us were taking a contemporary art history course. We were confronted by the idea of Post Modernism, which we agreed was a stupid idea as an art historical period.”
“If what Winston Churchill said was true, that ‘History is written by the victors,’ then art history was being written according what existed in museum collections.”
“We strive to be an inclusive artist-oriented museum developed around living connections to artists all over the world, primarily through the internet with the idea of collecting across the contemporary moment.”
Read the full article: PURCHASE KOLAJ #13 or SUBSCRIBE.
Learn more about the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction on the Collage Museum’s website.
Images (from top down):
US Study in Blue + Red by Nina Tichava (10″x13″; acrylic, ink, pen and printed vintage maps on paper; 2014; acquired in 2015)
Pages 14 and 15 from Kolaj #13 (image left: Spectators by Caroline Waite (altered cigar box with the lid made into a stage upon which is a plastic ballerina figurine surrounded by doll arms, in the background are three swans and above them is a line of doll eyeballs (stage lights) that open and close. Attached to the top of the stage is an ornate facade and the entire stage is lined with gold-colored filigree; acquired in 2009))
Installation view: Nisa Touchon Fine Art, Santa Fe, with display of the IMCAC collection
Firenze by Angela Davies (appox. 9″x12″; collage and stitches of thread on paper; acquired in 2009)