The term assemblage, was coined by the artist Jean Dubuffet in the 1950s.

However, assemblage developed at the beginning of the 20th century, with the Cubist collages of Pablo Picasso.  One of the earliest examples is Picasso's “Still Life with Chair Caning” (1911–12), in which a piece of oilcloth with an imitation chair caning design was pasted onto the painting, and a rope was used to frame the picture.

Subsequent art movements such as Dada and Surrealism explored the possibilities of assemblage.

Marcel Duchamp, for instance, created “ready-mades” and “found objects” from industrial and natural objects; he elevated them into the realm of art simply by adding an inscription or by including them in an exhibition.