Robert Rauschenberg
1925-2008
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist, born in Texas in 1925. He studied art at Kansas City Art Institute, and informally in Paris after World War II. In the late 1940's he attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Black Mountain was a progressive school for the arts, which had a number of influential teachers and visiting artists, including Josef Albers and John Cage, the avant garde musician. A freer spirit, he related more to the latter, than to the former (Albers), whose methodical color studies were perhaps too disciplined for Rauschenberg. He came to New York in the early 1950's, attending the Art Students League, and associated somewhat with the Abstract Expressionist artists then prevailing, as well as other younger artists such as Jasper Johns. He and Johns are perhaps artists who formed a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art, with which they are both also associated.
One of the reasons I feel that Rauschenberg was a great artist is what he could do with such limited means. His sense of design/composition was so strong that the placement of these simple geometric forms becomes actually monumental - an ironic juxtaposition with cardboard boxes. In an interview with Barbara Rose in her book, Rauschenberg, he said that his work attempts to ennoble the ordinary. Rauschenberg was an incredibly prolific artist - like an art machine, he continued to produce his distinctive images since the early 1950's. They are mainly two-dimensional works, however he continued to mount the often large images on various types of materials, such as metallic supports. In fact, some of his images are actually placed onto reflective materials, such as metals (aluminum, etc.), so that the reflection of the viewer and the environment become part of the image. His experimentation and exploration of techniques and materials was staggering, and included use of various technologies. Most of his images were not directly painted onto the surface, but transferred with various methods, including transferring photographic images to photosensitized canvas or other support. Like da Vinci, he was also interested in engineering and technological possibilities in art. To say that he was an inventive artist is such an understatement. His methods, materials, techniques and iconography were an endless evolving array, and at the age of 76 he was still growing and changing and producing. I've always respected and admired his work, and there is something about his spirit that is also engaging. I've seen still photos and film footage of him working, and there was an expression of pure joy on his face, like a child discovering, sometimes through play and free association and invention.
One of his most reproduced images is an example of his signature style. What he did was combine images from popular and contemporary culture in interesting and unexpected ways, and in unusual media. This well-known image was created circa 1963, and contains an image of President John F. Kennedy, with his finger pointing in his characteristic way. He also used other evocative fragments and images, most recognizable, some abstracted shapes or forms as well. This type of image is reflective of Pop art; but there are also painted elements, often sweeping and gestural, in the manner of the Abstract Expressionists who came before Pop. His work often combined geometric structures and "painterly" photographic images in a masterful fashion, many of which were his own photographs.
Rauschenberg's heritage was part Native American, and sometimes I've wondered if this played a part in his choice of images, his iconography, or the poetic and transcendent quality of his work. But his work was definitely American - as opposed to the European tradition, which at the time tended to be more refined, elegant, or cerebral. We Americans had tended toward ruggedness and independence of spirit, in our history and in our art. We liked things big - bold - free - impulsive (of course there are exceptions to this). Like Jackson Pollock, who also seemed very American, we liked to form our own opinions, explore our own territory, not that of the Old World, though of course we were still influenced by it, and for a long time tried to "measure up" to it. Perhaps like the Great American Novel, artists searched for an "American" artistic identity, and finally found it after World War II (with some help from emigre European artists, some fleeing from Hitler). Rauschenberg died in 2008, was one of the most well-known artists in the world, and was very successful.
1925-2008
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist, born in Texas in 1925. He studied art at Kansas City Art Institute, and informally in Paris after World War II. In the late 1940's he attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Black Mountain was a progressive school for the arts, which had a number of influential teachers and visiting artists, including Josef Albers and John Cage, the avant garde musician. A freer spirit, he related more to the latter, than to the former (Albers), whose methodical color studies were perhaps too disciplined for Rauschenberg. He came to New York in the early 1950's, attending the Art Students League, and associated somewhat with the Abstract Expressionist artists then prevailing, as well as other younger artists such as Jasper Johns. He and Johns are perhaps artists who formed a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art, with which they are both also associated.
One of the reasons I feel that Rauschenberg was a great artist is what he could do with such limited means. His sense of design/composition was so strong that the placement of these simple geometric forms becomes actually monumental - an ironic juxtaposition with cardboard boxes. In an interview with Barbara Rose in her book, Rauschenberg, he said that his work attempts to ennoble the ordinary. Rauschenberg was an incredibly prolific artist - like an art machine, he continued to produce his distinctive images since the early 1950's. They are mainly two-dimensional works, however he continued to mount the often large images on various types of materials, such as metallic supports. In fact, some of his images are actually placed onto reflective materials, such as metals (aluminum, etc.), so that the reflection of the viewer and the environment become part of the image. His experimentation and exploration of techniques and materials was staggering, and included use of various technologies. Most of his images were not directly painted onto the surface, but transferred with various methods, including transferring photographic images to photosensitized canvas or other support. Like da Vinci, he was also interested in engineering and technological possibilities in art. To say that he was an inventive artist is such an understatement. His methods, materials, techniques and iconography were an endless evolving array, and at the age of 76 he was still growing and changing and producing. I've always respected and admired his work, and there is something about his spirit that is also engaging. I've seen still photos and film footage of him working, and there was an expression of pure joy on his face, like a child discovering, sometimes through play and free association and invention.
One of his most reproduced images is an example of his signature style. What he did was combine images from popular and contemporary culture in interesting and unexpected ways, and in unusual media. This well-known image was created circa 1963, and contains an image of President John F. Kennedy, with his finger pointing in his characteristic way. He also used other evocative fragments and images, most recognizable, some abstracted shapes or forms as well. This type of image is reflective of Pop art; but there are also painted elements, often sweeping and gestural, in the manner of the Abstract Expressionists who came before Pop. His work often combined geometric structures and "painterly" photographic images in a masterful fashion, many of which were his own photographs.
Rauschenberg's heritage was part Native American, and sometimes I've wondered if this played a part in his choice of images, his iconography, or the poetic and transcendent quality of his work. But his work was definitely American - as opposed to the European tradition, which at the time tended to be more refined, elegant, or cerebral. We Americans had tended toward ruggedness and independence of spirit, in our history and in our art. We liked things big - bold - free - impulsive (of course there are exceptions to this). Like Jackson Pollock, who also seemed very American, we liked to form our own opinions, explore our own territory, not that of the Old World, though of course we were still influenced by it, and for a long time tried to "measure up" to it. Perhaps like the Great American Novel, artists searched for an "American" artistic identity, and finally found it after World War II (with some help from emigre European artists, some fleeing from Hitler). Rauschenberg died in 2008, was one of the most well-known artists in the world, and was very successful.
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