The Expendible 1957

Conrad Marca-Relli made this collage painting, "The Expendable," using canvas and oil paint. The term collage usually makes us think of paper, but Marca-Relli embraced the possibilities of texture and layering by affixing bits of canvas to a larger canvas support. Notice how the black shapes seem to emerge from the white ground, and the monochromatic palette emphasizes the materiality of the paint. It is not just color that defines the work, but the artist's deliberate gestures of cutting, arranging, and adhering materials together. The process feels direct, visceral. He engages with the traditional high art of painting while incorporating everyday processes of construction and demolition. The title suggests the social context of the artwork: the expendability of labor, of materials, of human life itself. By foregrounding his methods, Marca-Relli reminds us that art is not just about ideas, but also about the physical labor and material choices that give those ideas form.