As part of the modernist revolt, 20th century artists rebelled against the use of traditional materials in fine art and the consequent desire to demonstrate that “art” can be made out of anything. Artists have been creating sculpture, assemblage, combined paintings/sculptures and installations from an ever-widening range of unusual objects and materials.

First coined by the British art critic and curator Lawrence Alloway (1926-90), in 1961, “Junk Art” is described as artworks made from scrap metal, broken-up machinery, cloth rags, timber, waste paper and other “found” materials.

Traceable to early 20th-century art by Picasso, Duchamp and Schwitters, junk art has analogies in the works of Alberto Burri (1915-95) and later Arte Povera artists from Italy, Spanish artists like Antoni Tapies (b.1923), and the Californian Funk art movement. Junk art is also seen as a sub-species of “found art”, and is sometimes referred to as “trash art”. Its identifying mark remains the use of banal, ordinary, everyday materials.

Here, visual artist Vic Tolentino creates a skeleton Christmas tree made from upcycled materials found at home.

Source: Visual Arts Cork.com/Junk Art