Oh Brave Old World of Magazine Clippings: Collages by Beth Höckel

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

American craftswoman Beth Höckel creates witty collages using old periodical file sets. Clippings from magazines and illustrations from books from the 40s and 70s are becoming the material for modern works of art. The artist's nostalgia for an unprecedented past turns into mocking experiments on old photographs. It's funny that these works, in turn, are published in the media, and, who knows, perhaps in the future, the new collage master will gut the files with Beth Höckel's publications.

Elizabeth Ryan Hoeckel, aka Beth Hoeckel, was born and raised in the American city of Baltimore. The girl loved to draw and from childhood dreamed of becoming an artist. Later, classes in painting, graphics and photography at the school at the Institute of Art of Chicago were crowned with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

Beth Höckel graduated from the university 10 years ago and after that went to travel, collecting impressions around the world. The artist stayed longest in Japan and Greece, then spent two years in New York and another four in Los Angeles. A real kaleidoscope! Beth Höckel's travels, all this mixture of cultures and countries, are reminiscent of her collages from magazine and book clippings.

Now that Beth Höckel has returned to her native land and settled in Baltimore, she makes numerous collages from old magazines and photographs in her studio. Unusual works attract the attention of exhibition organizers, both local and national. In addition, Beth Höckel's collages illustrate articles in international magazines and Internet pages.

The main material for Beth Höckel's collages is clippings from magazines and books from the 40s and 70s. Especially the craftswoman loves pictures of the 50s; she says that you will not find such colors and such printing anymore. So the artist has to hunt for vintage editions in second-hand bookstores and flea markets.

Baltimore also has a special center that accepts printed donations from the public, and then distributes them free of charge to everyone. Guess who is there almost every week looking for materials for future collages?

Old books, magazine clippings from the 50s … In Beth Hoeckel's works, one can feel nostalgia for a time in which she did not live. Nevertheless, she blows up this brave old world with irony, resourcefully combining elements of other people's photographs and often creating comic collage paintings.