Collection Online
Medium
synthetic polymer paint on collage of torn printed paper
Measurements
223.2 × 134.9 cm irreg.
Place/s of Execution
Johannesburg, South Africa
Accession Number
2016.440
Department
International Prints and Drawings
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Paul and Wendy Bonnici and the NGV Foundation, 2016
© Kay Hassan. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work

South African artist Kay Hassan has worked in various media including painting, installation, video, sculpture and photography, but he is best known for his large-scale ‘paper constructions’. Hassan creates imposing portraits by shredding billboard paper, and gluing the tattered scraps of commercial advertisements back together to assemble large collages. The portraits and his technique are inspired by the people of Johannesburg. He says that ‘our lives have always been torn and put together – people have always been pushed around. You see it in the streets, in the kids begging, those eyes, the way they look at you’.

Subjects (general)
Portraits
Subjects (specific)
Johannesburg (inhabited place) portrait heads South Africa (nation) women (female humans)