FINE ART PRINTMAKING
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
White Painting
1951
Oil on canvas
48 x 48 inches
Robert Rauschenberg has had an extensive impact on late twentieth-century visual culture. His work has been of central influence in many of the significant developments of postwar American art and has provided countless blueprints for artistic innovation by younger generations. Rauschenberg’s radical approach to his artistic practice was always sensational, with the artist producing works so experimental that they eluded definition and categorisation. The National Gallery of Australia holds an important collection of Rauschenberg’s works. These works exemplify the artist’s striking transition in subject matter and material during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s – a shift from the imagery of American popular culture to a focus on the handmade and unique combinations of natural and found materials. Many of the works exhibited in Robert Rauschenberg: 1967–1978 reveal the artist’s overarching aim to ‘drag ordinary materials into the art world for a direct confrontation. It has been Rauschenberg’s perpetual mix of art with life that has ensured that his work appears as innovative today as it was 40 years ago.
Despite his ‘prankster’ reputation, Rauschenberg was highly self-disciplined and determined to challenge himself. In 1951, he completed a series of white paintings, which were in contrast, followed by a series of black paintings. By limiting himself to a monochromatic palette, Rauschenberg performed an artistic exorcism, rendering the restrictions imposed by media, style and convention obsolete so that there were no psychological boundaries to what he could do from that point onwards. Only after such self-imposed regulation was Rauschenberg prepared for what he was to attempt next. In a radical transgression of artistic conventions, Rauschenberg began to fuse vertical, wall-mounted painterly works with horizontal, floor-based sculptural elements, usually in the form of found objects. His fusion of the two-dimensional picture plane and the three-dimensional object is now of legendary status. It was the invention of a new ‘species’ of art, which Rauschenberg termed ‘Combines’.
Bed
Robert Rauschenberg
(American, 1925–2008)
1955. Oil and pencil on pillow, quilt, and sheet on wood supports
75 1/4 x 31 1/2 x 8"
I like his work "bed" very much. In this work, he deconstructs the attributes of bed and adds some elements of painting and collage. He integrated daily necessities into his works. I think the diversity of materials makes his works look more beautiful. Although I am also trying to integrate my own life traces into my works, the choice of materials is still too single, not enough "life" and bold. Maybe I can expand the scope of material collection and collect three-dimensional materials as my creative materials.
Robert Rauschenberg Storyline I from the Reels (B + C) series 1968 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1973 © Robert Rauschenberg. Licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2007
If there is an overarching methodology that provides a foundation to Rauschenberg’s work, it is the collage technique. While collage was initially developed in the 1920s by Dada artists such as Kurt Schwitters, Rauschenberg catapulted collage into the sphere of ‘hyper collage’.Rauschenberg’s work contains layered image sequences, or image sentences, where the viewer interprets the progression of images as though reading a language system. Rauschenberg’s syntax, however, is arranged in multiple, simultaneous combinations and directions. It demands a different kind of looking – a repetitive change of focus, back and forth, in an analysis of the detail of each individual component image in order to perceive the composition as a whole. While this fragmentation of the composition is akin to the multiple viewpoints of Cubism, it has been more eloquently compared by John Cage to watching ‘many television sets working simultaneously all tuned in differently …’
I am very interested in Rauschenberg’s collages. In my opinion, his collages are very narrative. Looking at his works is like looking at an essay. He uses pictures to organize concise and powerful sentences, which are fragmented but poetic. I'm not mature enough in collage. Rauschenberg’s works let me find the direction of collage. I will pay more attention to the narrative of collage. In terms of composition, his works also have a lot I can learn from.
Coca-Cola Plan
1958
Combine: pencil on paper, oil on three Coca-Cola bottles, wood newel cap, and cast metal wings on wood structure
26 3/4 x 25 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches
The Coca Cola plan is another work that I like very much, in which l Rauschenberg combines many objects. In addition to the glass, wooden cabinet and iron wings, he also used coca cola bottles, which are very familiar with society. The wings on both sides of the work give the work some mythical color. The combination of popular culture and daily necessities has produced a new form of sculpture. The work seems to have a kind of divinity, but it also implies the irony of brand worship. What excites me is that the garbage of life can be presented in a new form, and the randomness and uncertainty of the collected materials make the works accidental and fresh. The application of composite materials is the direction I want to develop in the future.
Rauschenberg‘s continuous exploration of materials and painting techniques can be seen in many of his works. In some of his works, he blurs the boundaries between painting, sculpture and installation. He used the essence of his works to establish a direct contact with the audience. So that people can perceive and consider the existence of works. This is what I've been trying to do, and I hope that in the next exploration, I can use materials to connect with the audience. In terms of the use of materials, I hope to integrate 2D and 3D materials to communicate with the audience through touch and vision.