Hi Drager,

The over the last 50 years, most historians point out that the first fine art collage also happens to be the first assemblage: Pablo Picasso's Still Life with Chair Caning.

https://www.pablopicasso.org/still-life-with-chair-caning.jsp 

But Scholars also suggest that a precursor to this is Degas' Little Dancer Aged 14 sculpture:

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/degas-little-dancer-aged-fourt...

These designations make sense from the point of view of European fine art practice and tradition. What makes Picasso's so stunning, and not Degas' is that Picasso and Braque—who are both given due credit for jointly pioneering collage—is that once Picasso and Braque began experimenting with collage techniques, there work inspired many other artists to also experiment. It is an amazing fact that within a year of the inception dates of fine art collage—May to September of 1912—collage in fine art was found in cultures the world over. That cannot be said for Dagas' work.

If we expand our understanding of assemblage to it's basic components—any two physically joined objects—then we most certainly can include the very first tool made by hominids as works of assemblages. But the thing is, the collage revolution was initiated by the creative destruction of European traditions that caused the sensation to spread like wild fire. When i discuss assemblage with my students in my art history slide shows, i have a slide to point out that simple definition of combining objects to form tools can be considered an early act of collage/assemblage. It is useful to consider such a basic need as to combine and to collage. The key idea here for assemblage is that artists used things they did not create themselves and fashioned together something new out of found materials at a time with the tradition in Europe for sculpture was only three possibilities: subtractive process (carving wood, carving stone, sometimes clay), additive process (hand-building clay and any other building material, wood, metal etcetera), and bronze casting.

Regarding research, i would recommend Diane Waldman, Collage, Assemblage and the Found Object

https://www.amazon.com/Collage-Assemblage-Found-Object-Waldman/dp/0...

Also, see William Seitz, The Art of Assemblage:

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Assemblage-William-Chapin-Seitz/dp/B0007...

These are classic texts on the subject.

Hope that is of interest, even though i see your post is several years old!

Hello Todd,

Still alive, so it's not too late. There is also the pub by Drager Meurtant, "Assemblages: the entrails explained" in Axon Journal Issue 9 (Assemblage, free online access). When almost finished writing, the Seitz book arrived, and I had great joy. Now, more time goes into graphics, but collage and assemblage are still part of my activities.

Shouldn't forget poetry. all together we speak about Drager Meurtant - Paleidokopus (2018). Not on amazone...

What about that Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1500's) who made portraits from vegetables and plant forms?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo

Of course they were not actual physical forms but none the less he conceptualised an approach to representing abstract concepts such as eg the four seasons in terms of items associated with the subject.