Paul Citroen (1896-1983) was a German-born Dutch artist who experimented in a wide range of media across his career, best known and widely famous for his photomontages and Dutch postage stamps he created in 1949. Inspired by Dadaist collages, the urban photomontage that brought him international fame was Metropolis (1923) which was the inspiration for Fritz Lang’s film.

My favourite of his collages is 1919’s “New York”, an image assembled from a multitude of “optically cascading” photographs of buildings (not all from New York itself, as can be seen), which creates an energetic, exciting, and yet overwhelming work of art. In later life Citroen became an art teacher, before leaving photography behind. He became a portrait painter until the end of his life.

Have a good and safe night, everyone!