Mixed Media - Tate

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Mixed media

Mixed media is a term used to describe artworks composed from a combination of different media or materials

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Pablo PicassoBottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper (1913)Tate
© Succession Picasso/DACS 2025

The use of mixed media began around 1912 with the cubist collages and constructions of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, and has become widespread as artists developed increasingly open attitudes to the media of art. Essentially art can be made of anything or any combination of things.

Mixed media vs. multi-media

What is the difference between mixed media and multi-media artworks? While both terms describe artworks that are made using a range of materials, multi-media is generally used to define an artwork that uses or includes a combination of electronic media, such as video, film, audio and computers.

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Medium

Medium can refer to both to the type of art (e.g. painting, sculpture, printmaking), as well as the materials an artwork is made from
Multi-media

The term multi-media describes artworks made from a range of materials and include an electronic element such as audio or video
Collage

Collage describes both the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down onto a supporting surface
Bricolage

Bricolage refers to the construction or creation of an artwork from any materials that come to hand
Assemblage

Assemblage is art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially
Installation art

The term installation art is used to describe large-scale, mixed-media constructions, often designed for a specific place or for a temporary period of time
Surrealism

A twentieth-century literary, philosophical and artistic movement that explored the workings of the mind, championing the irrational, the poetic and the revolutionary
Cubism

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907–08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They brought different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted

explore this term

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Tate Britain Commission 2014: Phyllida Barlow

Sculptor Phyllida Barlow will unveil her largest and most ambitious work in London to date for the Tate Britain Commission 2014
MicroTate 9: Angel of Anarchy

Kate Davis

Kate Davis reflects on Eileen Agar’s Angel of Anarchy 1936–40

selected artists in the collection

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Pablo Picasso
1881–1973
Eileen Agar
1899–1991
Chris Ofili
born 1968
Dame Phyllida Barlow DBE RA
1944–2023
Kurt Schwitters
1887–1948
Georges Braque
1882–1963
Peter Blake
born 1932
Tracey Emin
born 1963
Sarah Lucas
born 1962

selected artworks in the collection

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The Last Night of the Shop 3.7.93
Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas 1993
Still Life
Pablo Picasso 1914 On display at Tate Modern Part of Theatre Picasso
The Toy Shop
Peter Blake 1962
No. IV
Cy Twombly 1974 View by appointment
Vox Box
Joe Tilson 1963
(Relief in Relief)
Kurt Schwitters c.1942–5 On display at Tate Modern Part of Materials and Objects
No Woman, No Cry
Chris Ofili 1998 On display at Tate Britain Part of Modern and Contemporary British Art
Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber No. 2
Colin Self 1963
Angel of Anarchy
Eileen Agar 1936–40 On display at Tate Britain Part of Historic and Modern British Art
Pauline Bunny
Sarah Lucas 1997