Bricolage
- Artist: Carol Rama
- Date: 1968
- Medium: Paint, plastic doll’s eyes and beads on hardboard
- Dimensions: support: 695 × 595 × 5 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Bricolage” by Carol Rama. Created in 1968 in Turin, it sits on a sturdy Masonite panel measuring roughly 70 by 60 centimetres. Rama layers thick swaths of brown, yellow, red and black paint, then embeds four clusters of doll’s eyes—some with lashes—into the surface. The eyes, a recurring motif in her work, draw the viewer in, turning the painting into a kind of playful interrogation of gaze. The title comes from a French word meaning a construction made from disparate objects, which fits Rama’s bricolage style that mixes found items like metal shavings, wire and even car parts. Her early experimentation with watercolours and abstract expressionism informed the loose, gestural brushwork here, while the surreal references to doll imagery give it an uncanny edge. Signed and dated in the lower left, it’s a quintessential example of her mid‑century period.
See it in person
Bricolage is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
