On Paper: New Paper Art

Paper is one of the most versatile of all media. We can all relate to the simple pleasure of crumpling paper in the palm of the hand, if only to toss it into the waste-paper basket. Whether folded, cut, or molded as pulp, its rôle need not be restricted to that of support for other media. However, until the mid-twentieth century such techniques as papier mâché and origami were accorded the status of little more than curiosities, certainly not to be regarded as vehicles for serious creative endeavor. Attitudes changed after artists of the standing of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque began to explore the nature of paper, taking it from the flatness of collage toward the three-dimensionality of sculpture. Over the last fifty years, a growing number of practitioners from disciplines as diverse as textiles, ceramics, sculpture, painting, and design have used paper as their principal material. On Paper explores the development and recognition of paper as a medium of expression, combining personal recollection with historical overview, and comprehensively illustrated with a whole range of the different creative uses to which paper has been put by artists from all over the world.