Found Art

No, I didn’t find any lost art.  In fact, I’ve always been a little confused about this art form that emerged at the begining of the 20th Century and which was brought to fame by the Dada Movement.  Some famous artists and their Found Art include Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain,  and Pablo Picasso’s Baboon And Young.”  When I first started studying early 20th Century art in college I knew I was going to have a tough time  when it came to Duchamp’s toilet, and Picasso’s ”Baboon” was just as disturbing.

Anyway, Found Art and Assemblage is still being practiced today.  Remember one of my earliest posts titled “A Bunch Of Bull?”  Damien Hirst, Britain’s Bad Boy of Art is no doubt the richest.  70 million Pounds for a bull in a tank of formaldehyde.  Colin George Jeffrey is another practicing found art artist, although I doubt as rich as Hirst.  His work “Tea Bird” is more typical of the assemblage art I’ve seen.  A photo of his work is posted on the Wikipedia link ”Found Art” above.

I’m sure we have several Found Art artists right here close to home.  If you know of any please let me know.  I’d love to put them in ”The Spotlight.”  One for sure is Gerard Ferrari.  He was one of the artists first featured in “The Spotlight” last January.  Although pottery is his main medium, he also does found art and 2-D work.

Whatever you think of “Found Art,” it has been with us for a long time.  You might Love it, you might scratch your head and wonder, and of course you just might not like it.  But, people will still pay 70 million pounds for it and artists are still going to produce it.  I think I’ll just keep scratching my head and wonder.