Jazzmen
- Artist: Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé
- Date: 1961
- Medium: Printed papers on canvas
- Dimensions: image: 2170 x 1770 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Jazzmen” by Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé. The piece is a collage of torn posters stripped from the walls of rue de Tolbiac in Paris, taken on 10 December 1961. Villeglé’s idea was to capture the spontaneous act of a passer‑by tearing a billboard, turning that moment into an artwork. He mounted the fragments onto canvas with a minimal touch, letting the torn edges and overlapping typography speak for themselves. The title comes from the red‑jacketed guitarists that appear in the left‑hand fragment, hinting at the jazz scene of the time. The work sits at the intersection of advertising, architecture and abstract collage, embodying the New Realist belief that the city itself can supply raw material for art. The piece invites you to read the street as a living collage, with each torn piece a fragment of everyday life.
See it in person
Jazzmen 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.
