The artworks in “Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage” are dense, layered and intricate. But what’s immediately striking about many of the pieces is their size. This is a big show — filling galleries on three levels of the Phillips Collection — of big art.
As a distinct art form, collage began in Europe a little more than a century ago. Early practitioners such as George Braque, Pablo Picasso and Kurt Schwitters usually worked on a modest scale. While adapting the techniques of those predecessors, many of “Multiplicity’s” contributors emulate the extravagant reach of the largest abstract expressionist canvases...
