Papier-mâché, French for 'chewed paper', is a way of building sculptures using layers of paper strips, or pieces of pulp and textiles, soaked in glue, starch, or wallpaper paste; when it dries it is rock hard. This technique, originating in Ancient Egypt, is now commonly used in the arts industry; effigies, puppetry and theatre.
Jack Rose's 'Bottle Woman' stands on a bottle pedestal - Rose uses the bottle and wire as the structure for his sculpture. The figure is signed and dated (above the plinth).
Joe Rose (1915-1999)
Joe Rose was a surrealist artist, born in Woldenberg, Germany.
His art training in Europe was interrupted by the advent of World War II and he was imprisoned for anti-Nazi activities. After a harsh time in concentration camps at Sonnenberge in 1933 and Buckenwald in 1938, he and his wife made a remarkable escape in 1939.
They came to England and he volunteered for the British Army serving with the Reconnaissance Corps. After demobilisation in 1945 he gained a Diploma from the International Correspondence Schools and worked as a display artist and director in London. In 1957 he emigrated to Australia where he studied with Maximilian Feuerring.
He was elected a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute and on his return to London in 1971, joined the Contemporary Portrait Society, the Contemporary Art Society and Ben Uri Art Society. From 1979 he decided to live and work in London and Sydney, eventually settling in Hobart, Tasmania, where he was a Member of the Tasmanian Art Society. He had solo shows in Sydney at the Galleries of Barry Stern, Macquarie and Holdsworth Obelisk Gallery, Wilma Wayne, Jerusalem Artists House and Sternberg Centre, also in Paris and Los Angeles as well as many group shows in the UK and USA.
He won a number of awards including the British Empire Medal for services to the Arts. His work
is in the Collections of Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem; Nuffield Foundation, London; Essex Arts Committee; Prince Mural Collection of Surrealist Art, Paris; Ben Uri Art Collection, London; New South Wales House, London and Bathurst Municipal Gallery.
1. Describe what you can see
2. What is the figure doing?
3. Can you imagine what the figure might be feeling?
4. Is it an accurate representation of the human body?
5. Can you spot ways in which it is different from a natural body?
6. Do you have any ideas why the artist has distorted parts of the body?
7. Look at the surface of the sculpture; what would it be like if you touched it?
8. Describe what kind of colours the artist has used.
9. In what way does the pattern relate to the form underneath?
10. Consider the base of the sculpture; why has the artist needed such a secure base?
1. What could this sculpture be made from?
Papier mache: a way of building sculpture using layers of paper strips soaked in glue; when it dries it is rock hard.
2. This piece is called ‘Bottle Woman’ – can you see where the bottle could be?
It is under the leg.
3. What could be used as the armature (a frame or structure) for the rest of the sculpture? Try and guess what the artist may have used as the shapes underneath to support the glue soaked strips of paper?
4. How does the sculpture stand up? Look at the base and describe.
