Martin Sharp's Art Book 1972

Martin Sharp Archive     On 4 December 1972 Australian artist Martin Sharp and the London firm of Mathews Miller Dunbar published a small book of collaged artworks simply titled Art Book . Within its 38 pages were colour reproductions of works by Sharp which juxtaposed images by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Rene Magritte. Sharp took colour reproductions from store-bought art books and utilised a pair of sharp scissors to cut and paste the elements of the classic paintings into collages. Prior to this Sharp's art had been a mixture of black and white cartoons and multicoloured psychedelic graphic designs, as seen within the Sydney and London editions of OZ magazine, and posters such as his famous Bob Dylan Blowing in the Mind for Big O Posters of London. Elements of collage had existed in his work since his earliest days as an artist in the late 1950s, strongly influenced by his mother's work in that medium. The Art Book was also a reflection of Sharp's abiding i