CritterBlog

Robert Rauschenberg Remembered (1925-2008)

May 25, 2008 – 6:14 pm by R. Gilbert

“You begin with the possibilities of the material. I think a painting is more like the real world if it’s made out of the real world.” — Robert Rauschenberg

When artist Robert Rauschenberg died of heart failure on May 12, 2008, at the age of 82, the accolades came from every direction. Mark Feeney of the Boston Globe called him “one of the foremost American artists of the 20th century (who) helped break down aesthetic barriers between the exalted and the everyday.” To Time Magazine’s Richard Lacaya, Rauschenberg was “The Wild and Crazy Guy,” who was no less than “a demiurge of creative disorder.”

One of the most touching tributes I read, however, was in an email from my friend, San Francisco photographer Douglas Sandberg. He has graciously allowed me to publish his essay on Art2u.com. I hope that you will read it, and enjoy it as much as I did.

Click here to read “Remembering Robert Rauschenberg” by Douglas Sandberg, or paste this link into your browers: http://www.art2u.com/news/rauschenberg.html.

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In 1959 Robert Rauschenberg created Monogram, one of the first of The Combines. These are a groundbreaking body of work that collaged found objects (usually litter from the streets of New York), newspaper clippings and applied paint in sculptural form that could be free standing or hung on the wall.

The materials used in Monogram include a stuffed angora goat with a tire around its waist, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint.

The Combine entitled Canyon is made of stuffed bald eagle that belonged to one of the last survivors of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. When the poor man died, the janitors shoved all of his possessions into the hallway of the Carnegie Studios. A neighbor salvaged it for Mr. Rauschenberg.

Early in his career, Mr. Rauschenberg was a stage designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. When he became the first American artist to win the international grand prize at the Venice Biennale in 1964, he claimed he regarded the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as his biggest canvas. Ever the eclectic talent, in 1983 he won a Grammy Award for the cover of the Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues.

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“Being around Bob was often like being on some kind of ecstatic drug — he inspired those around him to not only think outside of the box, but to question the box’s very existence.” David Byrne, musician, visual artist