Mash-Up Art is a daring and unique step forward for art. Before the popularity of Mash-Up Art, classifying the artistic styles was straightforward and easily distinguishable from each other. However, when Mash-Up Art entered the scene, creativity in the art scene had reached a whole new level — and for the better, it seems.
Before going into further detail about the development of Mash-Up Art in the artistic community, taking a look back at how art became a free space for everyone to explore and experiment on adds more context to the origins of Mash-Up Art in its entirety.
Art is one of the most flexible and evolving human practices that has been around since ancient times. A means of expressing oneself in a creative manner, art has taken on many versions and phases throughout the centuries that it has taken for art to become what it is known today.
One of the most significant turns in the history of art was when the contemporary movement was born during the 20th century. This event in art history opened the doors for more creative minds to explore and express their emotions on the canvas.
For so long, art was reserved for the elite and the exclusive. Art was branded as a classy and sophisticated form of creativity that was not easily accessible to everyone. However, a major shift in this mindset was experienced during the peak of the contemporary movement in art.
The imaginary walls of art as something being enjoyed by a select few were torn down in the 20th century. Creativity and freedom of expression were preferred rather than preserving the classiness of art. The masses were given more power artistically.
And so, this development paved the way for more art styles to be born out of the many minds that were now free to imagine their own versions of art as they see fit. One of the attention-grabbing techniques that came out of this artistic revolution is Mash-Up Art.
Simply put, Mash-Up Art — from the word itself — is the combination of two or more ideas or concepts into one piece that is in itself, a brand-new artwork. Mash-Up Art, specifically, is an art style that incorporates different parts of several artworks into one piece that carries a theme and style of its own as well.
Starting off with small alterations of disrupting the formal style of art by adding unusual materials into a piece such as a newspaper cutout or a piece of wallpaper, Mash-Up Art developed into a movement beloved by many up to today.
While this movement has been around for quite some time now, Mash-Up Art received even wider attention when it was featured in 2016 by the Vancouver Gallery in an exhibition called MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture. The exhibition retells the history of Mash-Up Art and how contemporary creative minds such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol laid out the foundation for the art style.
As Mash-Up Art is appreciated by many people, the community continues to grow in size. And eventually, the technique will soon evolve into a more innovative and groundbreaking version than what it already is currently.
Check out a selection of my mash up art paintings.