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Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the
Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his
Combines (1954–1964), a group of artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials and which blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor, but he also worked with
photography,
printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...
,
papermaking
Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...
and performance.
[
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]
Rauschenberg received numerous awards during his nearly 60-year artistic career. Among the most prominent were the International Grand Prize in Painting at the 32nd
Venice Biennale in 1964 and the
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...
in 1993.
Rauschenberg lived and worked in New York City and on
Captiva Island, Florida
Captiva is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. It is located on Captiva Island. As of the 2020 census the population was 318, down from 583 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ca ...
, until his death on May 12, 2008.
Life and career
Rauschenberg was born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg in
Port Arthur, Texas
Port Arthur is a city in Jefferson County within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small, uninhabited portion extends into Orange County; it is east of Houston. The largest oil refinery in the United Sta ...
, the son of Dora Carolina (née Matson) and Ernest R. Rauschenberg. His father was of German and Cherokee ancestry and his mother of Dutch descent. His father worked for Gulf States Utilities, a light and power company. His parents were
Fundamentalist Christians.
He had a younger sister named Janet Begneaud.
At 18, Rauschenberg was admitted to the
University of Texas at Austin where he began studying
pharmacology
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
, but he dropped out shortly after due to the difficulty of the coursework—not realizing at this point that he was
dyslexic
Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...
—and because of his unwillingness to dissect a frog in biology class.
[Patricia Burstein (May 19, 1980)]
In His Art and Life, Robert Rauschenberg Is a Man Who Steers His Own Daring Course
'' People''. He was drafted into the
United States Navy in 1944. Based in
California, he served as a neuropsychiatric technician in a Navy hospital until his discharge in 1945 or 1946.
Rauschenberg subsequently studied at the
Kansas City Art Institute and the
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...
in Paris, France, where he met fellow art student
Susan Weil
Susan Weil (born March 31, 1930) is an American artist best known for her experimental three-dimensional paintings, which combine figurative illustration with explorations of movement and space.
Life and career
Weil was born in New York City. ...
. At that time he also changed his name from Milton to Robert. In 1948 Rauschenberg joined Weil in enrolling at
Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
[
][
]
At
Black Mountain
Black Mountain may refer to:
Places Australia
* Black Mountain (Australian Capital Territory), a mountain in Canberra
* Black Mountain, New South Wales, a village in Armidale Regional Council, New South Wales
* Black Mountain, Queensland, a loca ...
, Rauschenberg sought out
Josef Albers, a founder of the
Bauhaus in Germany, whom he had read about in an August 1948 issue of
''Time'' magazine. He hoped that Albers' rigorous teaching methods might curb his habitual sloppiness.
Albers' preliminary design courses relied on strict discipline that did not allow for any "uninfluenced experimentation."
Rauschenberg became, in his own words, "Albers' dunce, the outstanding example of what he was not talking about".
Although Rauschenberg considered Albers his most important teacher, he found a more compatible sensibility in
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
, an established composer of avant-garde music. Like Rauschenberg, Cage had moved away from the disciplinarian teachings of his instructor,
Arnold Schönberg, in favor of a more experimentalist approach to music. Cage provided Rauschenberg with much-needed support and encouragement during the early years of his career, and the two remained friends and artistic collaborators for decades to follow.
From 1949 to 1952 Rauschenberg studied with
Vaclav Vytlacil
Vaclav Vytlacil was an American artist and art instructor, and was among the earliest and most influential advocates of Hans Hofmann's teachings in the United States.
Life
Vaclav "Vyt" Vytlacil was born in New York City to Czech immigrant parents ...
and
Morris Kantor
Morris Kantor ( be, Морыс Кантор) (1896-1974) was a Russian Empire-born American painter based in the New York City area.
Life
Born in Minsk on April 15, 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States in 1906 at age 10, in order to jo ...
at the
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.
Although artists may stu ...
,
where he met fellow artists
Knox Martin and
Cy Twombly.
Rauschenberg married
Susan Weil
Susan Weil (born March 31, 1930) is an American artist best known for her experimental three-dimensional paintings, which combine figurative illustration with explorations of movement and space.
Life and career
Weil was born in New York City. ...
in the summer of 1950 at the Weil family home in Outer Island, Connecticut. Their only child, Christopher, was born July 16, 1951. The two separated in June 1952 and divorced in 1953. Thereafter, Rauschenberg had romantic relationships with fellow artists
Cy Twombly and
Jasper Johns, among others. His partner for the last 25 years of his life was artist Darryl Pottorf,
[Ella Nayor,"The Pine Island Eagle, "Bob Rauschenberg, art giant, dead at 82", May 13, 2008] his former assistant.
In the 1970s he moved into
NoHo in Manhattan in New York City.
[Kenneth T. Jackson, Lisa Keller, Nancy Flood (2010)]
''The Encyclopedia of New York City''
Second Edition, Yale University Press.
Rauschenberg purchased the Beach House, his first property on
Captiva Island, on July 26, 1968. However, the property did not become his permanent residence until the fall of 1970.
Rauschenberg died of heart failure on May 12, 2008, on
Captiva Island, Florida.
Artistic contribution
Rauschenberg's approach was sometimes called "
Neo-Dadaist," a label he shared with the painter
Jasper Johns. Rauschenberg famously stated that “painting relates to both art and life,” and he wanted to work "in the gap between the two.”
[Rauschenberg, Robert; Miller, Dorothy C. (1959)]
Sixteen Americans [exhibition
/nowiki>">xhibition">Sixteen Americans [exhibition
/nowiki> New York: Museum of Modern Art. p. 58. . OCLC (identifier)">OCLC
OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...
748990996. “Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in that gap between the two.)” Like many of his Dadaist predecessors, Rauschenberg questioned the distinction between art objects and everyday objects, and his use of readymade materials reprised the intellectual issues raised by Marcel Duchamp’s ''
Fountain'' (1917). Duchamp’s Dadaist influence can also be observed in Jasper Johns’ paintings of targets, numerals, and flags, which were familiar cultural symbols: “things the mind already knows.”
At Black Mountain College, Rauschenberg experimented with a variety of artistic mediums including printmaking, drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, and theatre; his works often featured some combination of these. He created his ''Night Blooming'' paintings (1951) at Black Mountain by pressing pebbles and gravel into black pigment on canvas. In the very same year he made full body blueprints in collaboration with Susan Weil in his New York apartment, which "they hope to turn
..into screen and wallpaper designs".
From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1953, Rauschenberg traveled in Italy and
North Africa with his fellow artist and partner
Cy Twombly. There, he created collages and small sculptures, including the ''Scatole Personali'' and ''Feticci Personali'', out of found materials. He exhibited them at galleries in
Rome and
Florence.
To Rauschenberg's surprise, a number of the works sold; many that did not he threw into the river
Arno, following the suggestion of an art critic who reviewed his show.
Upon his return to New York City in 1953, Rauschenberg began creating sculpture with found materials from his Lower Manhattan neighborhood, such as scrap metal, wood, and twine.
Throughout the 1950s, Rauschenberg supported himself by designing storefront window displays for
Tiffany & Co. and
Bonwit Teller, first with Susan Weil and later in partnership with Jasper Johns under the pseudonym Matson Jones.
In a famously cited incident of 1953, Rauschenberg requested a drawing from the
Abstract Expressionist painter
Willem de Kooning for the express purpose of erasing it as an artistic statement. This conceptual work, titled ''
Erased de Kooning Drawing,'' was executed with the elder artist's consent.
In 1961, Rauschenberg explored a similar conceptual approach by presenting an idea as the artwork itself. He was invited to participate in an exhibition at the
Galerie Iris Clert
The Iris Clert Gallery (''Galerie Iris Clert'' in French) was an art gallery named after its Greek owner and curator, Iris Clert. The single-room gallery The Iris Clert Gallery (Galerie'' Iris Clert'' in French) was an art gallery named after i ...
in Paris, where artists were to present portraits of
Clert, the gallery owner. Rauschenberg's submission consisted of a telegram declaring "This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so."
By 1962, Rauschenberg's paintings were beginning to incorporate not only found objects but found images as well. After a visit to
Andy Warhol’s studio that year, Rauschenberg began using a
silkscreen process, usually reserved for commercial means of reproduction, to transfer photographs to canvas. The silkscreen paintings made between 1962 and 1964 led critics to identify Rauschenberg's work with
Pop art.
Rauschenberg had experimented with technology in his artworks since the making of his early Combines in the mid-1950s, where he sometimes used working radios, clocks, and electric fans as sculptural materials. He later explored his interest in technology while working with Bell Laboratories research scientist
Billy Klüver. Together they realized some of Rauschenberg's most ambitious technology-based experiments, such as ''Soundings'' (1968), a light installation which responded to ambient sound. In 1966, Klüver and Rauschenberg officially launched
Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), a non-profit organization established to promote collaborations between artists and engineers.
In 1969,
NASA invited Rauschenberg to witness the launch of
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American Human spaceflight, spaceflight that first Moon landing, landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Lunar Module Eagle, ...
. In response to this landmark event, Rauschenberg created his ''Stoned Moon Series'' of
lithographs. This involved combining diagrams and other images from NASA's archives with his own drawings and handwritten text.
From 1970, Rauschenberg worked from his home and studio in
Captiva, Florida. The first works he created in his new studio were ''Cardboards'' (1971–72) and ''Early Egyptians'' (1973–74), for which he relied on locally sourced materials such as cardboard and sand. Where his previous works had often highlighted urban imagery and materials, Rauschenberg now favored the effect of natural fibers found in fabric and paper. He printed on textiles using his solvent-transfer technique to make the ''Hoarfrost'' (1974–76) and ''Spread'' (1975–82) series; the latter featured large stretches of collaged fabric on wood panels. Rauschenberg created his ''Jammer'' (1975–76) series using colorful fabrics inspired by his trip to
Ahmedabad, India, a city famous for its textiles. The imageless simplicity of the Jammer series is a striking contrast with the image-filled Hoarfrosts and the grittiness of his earliest works made in New York City.
International travel became a central part of Rauschenberg's artistic process after 1975. In 1984, Rauschenberg announced the start of his Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) at the
United Nations. Almost entirely funded by the artist, the ROCI project consisted of a seven-year tour to ten countries around the world. Rauschenberg took photographs in each location and made artworks inspired by the cultures he visited. The resulting works were displayed in a local exhibition in each country. Rauschenberg often donated an artwork to a local cultural institution.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, Rauschenberg focused on silkscreening imagery onto a variety of differently treated metals, such as steel and mirrored aluminum. He created many series of so-called “metal paintings,” including: ''Borealis'' (1988–92), ''Urban Bourbons'' (1988–1996), ''Phantoms'' (1991), and ''Night Shades'' (1991). In addition, throughout the 1990s, Rauschenberg continued to utilize new materials while still working with more rudimentary techniques. As part of his engagement with the latest technological innovations, in his late painting series he transferred digital inkjet photographic images to a variety of painting supports. For his ''Arcadian Retreats'' (1996) he transferred imagery to wet fresco. In keeping with his commitment to the environment, Rauschenberg used biodegradable dyes and pigments, and water rather than chemicals in the transfer process.
[Robert Rauschenberg](_blank)
Guggenheim Collection.
The ''White Paintings'', black paintings, and ''Red Paintings''
In 1951 Rauschenberg created his ''White Painting'' series in the tradition of
monochromatic painting established by
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
, who reduced painting to its most essential qualities for an experience of aesthetic purity and infinity.
The ''White Paintings'' were shown at Eleanor Ward's
Stable Gallery in New York in fall 1953. Rauschenberg used everyday white house paint and paint rollers to create smooth, unembellished surfaces which at first appear as blank canvas. Instead of perceiving them to be without content, however,
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
described the ''White Paintings'' as "airports for the lights, shadows and particles"; surfaces which reflected delicate atmospheric changes in the room.
Rauschenberg himself said that they were affected by ambient conditions, "so you could almost tell how many people are in the room."
Like the ''White Paintings'', the black paintings of 1951–1953 were executed on multiple panels and were predominantly single color works. Rauschenberg applied matte and glossy black paint to textured grounds of newspaper on canvas, occasionally allowing the newspaper to remain visible.
By 1953 Rauschenberg had moved from the ''White Painting'' and black painting series to the heightened expressionism of his ''Red Painting'' series. He regarded red as "the most difficult color" with which to paint, and accepted the challenge by dripping, pasting, and squeezing layers of red pigment directly onto canvas grounds that included patterned fabric, newspaper, wood, and nails. The complex material surfaces of the ''Red Paintings'' were forerunners of Rauschenberg's well-known Combine series (1954-1964).
Combines
Rauschenberg collected discarded objects on the streets of New York City and brought them back to his studio where he integrated them into his work. He claimed he "wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the surprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises.
..So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing."
Rauschenberg's comment concerning the gap between art and life provides the departure point for an understanding of his contributions as an artist.
He saw the potential beauty in almost anything; he once said, "I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly, because they're surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable." His
Combine
Combine may refer to:
Machinery
* Combine harvester, or combine, a machine to harvest grain crops
* Combine seeder, or combine, a machine to plant seeds
Company structure
* Corporate group, an industrial business group in Western democracie ...
series endowed everyday objects with a new significance by bringing them into the context of fine art alongside traditional painting materials. The Combines eliminated the boundaries between art and sculpture so that both were present in a single work of art. While "Combines" technically refers to Rauschenberg's work from 1954 to 1964, Rauschenberg continued to utilize everyday objects such as clothing, newspaper, urban debris, and cardboard throughout his artistic career.
His transitional pieces that led to the creation of Combines were ''Charlene'' (1954) and ''Collection'' (1954/1955), where he collaged objects such as scarves, electric light bulbs, mirrors, and comic strips. Although Rauschenberg had implemented newspapers and patterned textiles in his black paintings and ''Red Paintings'', in the Combines he gave everyday objects a prominence equal to that of traditional painting materials. Considered one of the first of the Combines, ''Bed'' (1955) was created by smearing red paint across a well-worn quilt, sheet, and pillow. The work was hung vertically on the wall like a traditional painting. Because of the intimate connections of the materials to the artist's own life, ''Bed'' is often considered to be a
self-portrait
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...
and a direct imprint of Rauschenberg's interior consciousness. Some critics suggested the work could be read as a symbol for violence and rape, but Rauschenberg described Bed as “one of the friendliest pictures I’ve ever painted.”
[Tomkins, Calvin (Feb. 29, 1964). "Profiles: Moving Out". The New Yorker 40, no. 2. p. 64.] Among his most famous Combines are those that incorporate taxidermied animals, such as
''Monogram'' (1955–1959) which includes a stuffed
angora goat, and
''Canyon'' (1959), which features a stuffed
golden eagle. Although the eagle was salvaged from the trash, Canyon drew government ire due to the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
Critics originally viewed the Combines in terms of their formal qualities: color, texture, and composition. The formalist view of the 1960s was later refuted by critic
Leo Steinberg, who said that each Combine was “a receptor surface on which objects are scattered, on which data is entered." According to Steinberg, the horizontality of what he called Rauschenberg's "flatbed picture plane" had replaced the traditional verticality of painting, and subsequently allowed for the uniquely material-bound surfaces of Rauschenberg's work.
Performance and dance
Rauschenberg began exploring his interest in dance after moving to New York in the early 1950s. He was first exposed to avant-garde dance and performance art at Black Mountain College, where he participated in John Cage's ''Theatre Piece No. 1'' (1952), often considered the first
Happening
A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events.
History
Origins
Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...
. He began designing sets, lighting, and costumes for
Merce Cunningham and
Paul Taylor. In the early 1960s he was involved in the radical dance-theater experiments at
Judson Memorial Church in
Greenwich Village, and he choreographed his first performance, ''Pelican'' (1963), for the Judson Dance Theater in May 1963. Rauschenberg was close friends with Cunningham-affiliated dancers including
Carolyn Brown,
Viola Farber, and
Steve Paxton
Steve Paxton (born 1939 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an experimental dancer and choreographer. His early background was in gymnastics while his later training included three years with Merce Cunningham and a year with José Limón. As a founding mem ...
, all of whom featured in his choreographed works. Rauschenberg's full-time connection to the
Merce Cunningham Dance Company ended following its 1964 world tour. In 1966, Rauschenberg created the ''Open Score'' performance for part of ''9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering'' at the
69th Regiment Armory, New York. The series was instrumental in the formation of
Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).
In 1977 Rauschenberg, Cunningham, and Cage reconnected as collaborators for the first time in thirteen years to create ''Travelogue'' (1977), for which Rauschenberg contributed the costume and set designs.
Rauschenberg did not choreograph his own works after 1967, but he continued to collaborate with other choreographers, including
Trisha Brown, for the remainder of his artistic career.
Commissions
Throughout his career, Rauschenberg designed numerous posters in support of causes that were important to him. In 1965, when ''
Life'' magazine commissioned him to visualize a modern Inferno, he did not hesitate to vent his rage at the
Vietnam War and other contemporary sociopolitical issues, including racial violence,
neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
, political assassinations, and ecological disaster.
In 1969 the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City commissioned Rauschenberg to create a piece in honor of its centennial. He learned that the museum’s original goals were detailed in a certificate from 1870 and created his ‘Centennial Certificate’ based on that object, with images of some of the best-known pieces in the museum and the signatures of the board at that time. Copies of the Centennial Certificate exist in numerous museums and private collections.
On December 30, 1979, the ''
Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...
'' printed 650,000 copies of ''
Tropic
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
,'' its Sunday magazine, with a cover designed by Rauschenberg. In 1983, he won a
Grammy Award for his album design of
Talking Heads' album ''
Speaking in Tongues''. In 1986 Rauschenberg was commissioned by
BMW to paint a full size
BMW 635 CSi
The BMW E24 is the first generation of BMW 6 Series range of grand tourer cars, which was produced from January 1976 to 1989 and replaced the BMW E9 coupé.
The E24 was produced solely in a 2-door coupé body style. All models used petrol straigh ...
for the sixth installment of the famed
BMW Art Car Project. Rauschenberg's car was the first in the project to feature reproductions of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as well as his own photographs.
In 1998, the
Vatican commissioned a work by Rauschenberg in honor of the
Jubilee year 2000 to be displayed in the
Padre Pio Liturgical Hall, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Working around the theme of the
Last Judgement, Rauschenberg created ''The Happy Apocalypse'' (1999), a twenty-foot-long
maquette. It was ultimately rejected by the Vatican on the grounds that Rauschenberg's depiction of God as a satellite dish was an inappropriate theological reference.
Works
File:Robert Rauschenberg, Retroactive II, 1963 1 26 18 -mcachicago (38559559950).jpg, Robert Rauschenberg, ''Retroactive II'', 1963, silkscreen painting
File:Robert Rauschenberg exposeert in Stedelijk Museum, Bestanddeelnr 921-0999.jpg, Robert Rauschenberg with ''Estate'' (1963), in a photograph at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. , February 1968
Exhibitions
Rauschenberg had his first solo exhibition at the
Betty Parsons Gallery in spring 1951. In 1953, while in Italy, he was noted by
Irene Brin
Irene Brin (born Maria Victoria Rossi, 14 June 1911 – 31 May 1969) was an Italian fashion journalist, writer and art dealer.
Biography
Irene Brin was born in Rome from a well-educated Ligurian family of progressive views. Her father was gener ...
and Gaspero del Corso and they organized his first European exhibition in their famous gallery in
Rome.
In 1953,
Eleanor Ward invited Rauschenberg to participate in a joint exhibition with Cy Twombly at the
Stable Gallery. In his second solo exhibition in New York at the
Charles Egan Gallery in 1954, Rauschenberg presented his ''Red Paintings'' (1953–1953) and Combines (1954–1964). Leo Castelli mounted a solo exhibition of Rauschenberg's Combines in 1958. The only sale was an acquisition by Castelli himself of ''Bed'' (1955), now in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Rauschenberg's first career retrospective was organized by the
Jewish Museum, New York, in 1963. In 1964 he became one of the first American artists to win the International Grand Prize in Painting at the
Venice Biennale (
Mark Tobey and
James Whistler had previously won painting prizes in 1895 and 1958 respectively). A mid-career retrospective was organized by the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
), Washington, D.C., and traveled throughout the United States between 1976 and 1978.
In the 1990s a retrospective was held at the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York (1997), which traveled to museums in Houston, Cologne, and Bilbao through 1999. An exhibition of Combines was presented at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005; traveled to
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,
Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris, and
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, through 2007). Rauschenberg's first posthumous retrospective was mounted at
Tate Modern (2016; traveled to Museum of Modern Art, New York, and
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through 2017).
Further exhibitions include: ''Robert Rauschenberg: Jammers,''
Gagosian Gallery, London (2013); ''Robert Rauschenberg: The Fulton Street Studio'', ''1953–54'', Craig F. Starr Associates (2014); ''A Visual Lexicon,'' Leo Castelli Gallery (2014); ''Robert Rauschenberg: Works on Metal'', Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills (2014); ''Rauschenberg in China'',
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art or UCCA () is a leading Chinese independent institution of contemporary art. Founded in 2007. Located at the heart of the 798 Art District in, China, it welcomes more than one million visitors a year. Originally ...
, Beijing (2016); and ''Rauschenberg: The 1/4 Mile'' at the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2018–2019).
Legacy
Rauschenberg believed strongly in the power of art as a catalyst for social change. The Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) began in 1984 as an effort to spark international dialogue and enhance cultural understanding through artistic expression. A ROCI exhibition went on view at the National Gallery of Art, D.C., in 1991, concluding a ten-country tour: Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, China, Tibet, Japan, Cuba, U.S.S.R., Germany, and Malaysia.
In 1970, Rauschenberg created a program called Change, Inc., to award one-time emergency grants of up to $1,000 to visual artists based on financial need. In 1990, Rauschenberg created the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) to promote awareness of the causes he cared about, such as world peace, the environment and humanitarian issues. In 1986, Rauschenberg received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement.
He was awarded the
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...
by
President Bill Clinton in 1993. In 2000, Rauschenberg was honored with
amfAR's Award of Excellence for Artistic Contributions to the Fight Against AIDS.
RRF today owns many works by Rauschenberg from every period of his career. In 2011, the foundation presented ''The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg'' in collaboration with
Gagosian Gallery, featuring selections from Rauschenberg's personal art collection. Proceeds from the exhibition helped fund the foundation's philanthropic activities. Also in 2011, the foundation launched its "Artist as Activist" project and invited artist
Shepard Fairey to focus on an issue of his choice. The editioned work he made was sold to raise funds for the
Coalition for the Homeless. RRF continues to support emerging artists and arts organizations with grants and philanthropic collaborations each year. The RRF has several residency programs that take place at the foundation's headquarters in New York and at the late artist's property in
Captiva Island, Florida.
In 2013, Dale Eisinger of
''Complex'' ranked ''Open Score'' (1966) seventh in his list of the all-time greatest performance art works.
Art market
In 2010 ''Studio Painting'' (1960‑61), one of Rauschenberg's Combines originally estimated at $6 million to $9 million, was bought from the collection of
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature tech ...
for $11 million at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
, New York. In 2019, Christie's sold the silkscreen painting ''Buffalo II'' (1964) for $88.8 million, shattering the artist's previous record.
Lobbying for artists' resale royalties
In the early 1970s, Rauschenberg lobbied
U.S. Congress to pass a bill that would compensate artists when their work is resold on the secondary market. Rauschenberg took up his fight for artist resale royalties (
droit de suite) after the taxi baron
Robert Scull sold part of his collection of Abstract Expressionist and Pop art works for $2.2 million. Scull had originally purchased Rauschenberg's paintings ''Thaw'' (1958) and ''Double Feature'' (1959) for $900 and $2,500 respectively; roughly a decade later Scull sold the pieces for $85,000 and $90,000 in a 1973 auction at
Sotheby Parke Bernet
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...
in New York.
Rauschenberg's lobbying efforts were rewarded in 1976 when California governor
Jerry Brown signed into law the
California Resale Royalty Act of 1976.
[Jori Finkel (February 6, 2014)]
Jori Finkel: Lessons of California's droit de suite debacle
'' The Art Newspaper''. The artist continued to pursue nationwide resale royalties legislation following the California victory.
See also
*
Combine painting
References
Further reading
*Busch, Julia M.
''A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s'' (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia
Associated University Presses London, 1974) , .
* Marika Herskovic
''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,''(New York School Press, 2000.) . p. 8; p. 32; p. 38; p. 294–297.
* Fugelso, Karl. "Robert Rauschenberg's ''Inferno'' Illuminations." In: ''Postmodern Medievalisms''. Ed. Richard Utz and Jesse G. Swan (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004). pp. 47–66.
*Sweeney, Louise M
The Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 1991.
External links
Robert Rauschenberg FoundationRobert Rauschenberg: The BroadOral history interview with Robert Rauschenberg, 1965, Smithsonian Archives of American ArtRobert Rauschenberg: MoMARauschenberg Research Projectat
SFMOMA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rauschenberg, Robert
1925 births
2008 deaths
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