Cut and Paste

New York is absolutely brimming with terrific art exhibits right now—so many that you can't get to them all in one weekend, as I sadly found out the hard way. I am going to take this chance to point out just one must-see from my last visit. It's small in scale but not to be overlooked: Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage.

I first heard of this Victorian trend on my sister Kate's blog A List of Surprises (Mattern crossover, blog edition!), where she discusses one of the artists on view at the Met now, Lady Georgiana Berkeley. Long before Photoshop existed, Lady Georgiana and other forward-thinking turn-of-the-century women were getting all Creative Suite up in their personal scrapbooks. They created imaginary scenarios for their friends and family by cutting up and reassembling their (then precious) photographs. The results are often surreal and humorous. Learn more about the exhibit and view additional images here and here.

It's must be noted that their work also predates photocollage experiments by better-known (male) avant-garde artists of the 20th century by at least 60 years. You go, girls! ••••