In Wollheim’s psychoanalytic theory he picks out certain states of mind as ‘iconic’; they present as if what they are about is real. Dreams are the obvious example but Wollheim includes also certain sorts of memory and imagination. From his art theory we learn how and under what conditions a painter tries to produce an image that is, again, ‘iconic’.

Patrice Moor’s collages can be viewed in this light: they are made by a process that the artist can describe or show to us but they are also an image of the process captured at a certain point. Thus, they give us and the artist a window into the process and how it is experienced by the artist at the time of making; a picture, that is, of the process.

In the talk I will bring together these two perspectives to explore how the concept of iconicity extends to collage, and whether collage offers us a further insight into the formation of the iconic state of mind.