Richard Lutzke was born in Wisconsin in 1951 and studied at the University of Wisconsin. In 1981 he was part of a show at the Corcoran gallery titled “Collage on Paper” along with five other collage artists. Lutzke’s work around this time consisted of everyday objects such as phone books, crossword puzzles, and dollar bills cut into strips and woven together into visual puns such as this one. Here, a soup label and a dollar bill are woven together and simply titled “Relationship.” Whereas the viewer might seek to impose meaning onto the piece, Lutzke’s tongue-in-cheek title refuses to take a stance.

Lutzke did not intend to be a collage artist—in an interview for the 1981 Corcoran show, he explained that he arrived at collage when he was cutting paper to size for watercolors. The process of cutting and fitting together paper became more interesting than painting, and he eventually began making collages with an absurd flair. In 1981 Lutzke had a solo show at Bannister Gallery, as well. However, in his interview for the Corcoran, he admitted that he did not know if he would still be making collage even three years later— it seems this prediction came true, as there are no records of his art to be found after 1981.