Since the 1970’s John Stezaker has used ‘found’ images from a variety of sources such as advertisements, books, postcards and film stills to produce collage.

He frequently places two disparate and seemingly unrelated images together, finding unexpected connections between them and creating unsettling and surprising juxtapositions. Stezaker has talked about ‘bringing out the possibilities in any image by linking them to another and creating a space for contemplationÂ’. The two present collages use the same source material, namely Arthur ThompsonÂ’s book Anatomy for Art Students, a core text for students at the Slade School of Art until the 1970Â’s. One collage features the front and reverse view of a woman, and the second features a male and female body ‘splicedÂ’ together, creating ambiguous and unsettling images of the body. This acquisition was purchased with the support of the Art Fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation through the Contemporary Art Society Acquisition Scheme.

Provenance

i) The artist; The Approach ii) The artist; The Approach


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