Pollard does the collage

Suddenly, the $12.50 Robert Pollard charges for his EAT collections of collage art and verse seem positively bargain-like. A show of Pollard’s collages opened last week at Studio Dante in New York, a gallery owned by “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli. The show, “Do the Collage,” has been a hit, and several of the pieces already have been sold. They average between $1,500 and $6,000. There are 93 in the collection, with about half framed and half not. If Pollard sells all of them, he’d be looking at well over $100,000. Not bad for a pursuit that most of us gave up in elementary school.

More power to him, of course. He had been selling things off in drips and drabs on eBay, drawing prices similar to those seen here. At least everyone gets a chance to see these in person, and he gets some notice as an artist.

He’s unashamed about selling the work, even though some of the pieces were used on record sleeves and thus are likely seen as collective property of GBV nation. “Why should I not make money on that? It’s my art,” he told me in a 2006 interview. “Some people think, ‘Why are you selling this stuff on eBay; are you desperate or trying to gouge the fans?’ No, I’m not, because it’s my art, and artists sell their stuff, don’t they?”

There are things to be learned from the collection. The cover of the forthcoming Fantagraphics book of Pollard’s collages, Town of Mirrors, is among the images, as is the cover of a forthcoming Circus Devils LP and a box collecting the Happy Jack Rock Records singles series. The original art that has been used on several already-released records also is available, including the last Circus Devils LP, Sgt. Disco, and his solo Standard Gargoyle Decisions disc.