In my last article, I analyzed female collage artists from the 1770’s through the 1930’s, (Part 1, here), and the access to creative spheres the medium gave women in the long 19th century through to the 1930’s. Now, picking back up in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, one of the most iconic eras of protest, counterculture, and civil disobedience throughout the world, we delve into the intersections of collage, second wave feminism, the anti-war movement, and the fight for abortion, civil rights & desegregation. The intersection of these events with the medium of collage would solidify the medium as synonymous with rebellion, protest, and social commentary as the world moves into the 21st century.

Most recognize the art of mixed media collage as an invention by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, or Georges Braques in the collage phase of the Cubist movement from 1912-1914, when they popularized the medium and thrust it onto the the international art scene and gave it the legitimacy needed to be defined as valid artform. Although the technique of cutting and pasting paper together is as old as the invention of paper itself in 5th century China; the beginning of collage as we recognize it today comes from much more unassuming place: inside the homes of aristocratic women during the long 19th century.

So, in an increasingly connected and ‘democratic’ world (at least in terms of the options available for anyone to purchase,) how can the upper classes create a new visual representation of their wealth and status, what object or lifestyle can they attain that cannot be replicated or ‘appropriated’ by the lower classes? Unrestricted Nudity.