Robert Rauschenberg

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Robert Rauschenberg, 1999

Robert Milton Ernest Rauschenberg (born October 22, 1925 in Port Arthur , Texas , † May 12, 2008 on Captiva Island , Florida ) was an American painter , printmaker , photographer and object artist and a pioneer of Pop Art in the 20th century, although his multi-layered work cannot be used for this style.

Rauschenberg believed that the reunification of artistic visual reality with the reality of life that he strived for could best be achieved by bringing parts of the real world unchanged into art.

In his works, for example, he combined tennis balls , car tires , bicycles and stuffed goats in a subtle way. Unlike other material artists, however, he did not change these material remnants of the “real world”, but left them as they are.

Artistic influences

For Rauschenberg, artistic models and relatives were primarily German artists such as the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters , the painter and art theorist Josef Albers , but also the Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys . Willem de Kooning also represented a point of reference in Rauschenberg's artistic development that should not be underestimated . As the main exponent of abstract expressionism , the non-representational approach to painting that led the way in the American post-war period, he and Albers sparked a personal rebellion for Rauschenberg.

After studying at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Académie Julian in Paris, the color field painting of his teacher Josef Albers at Black Mountain College North Carolina, which he had attended since 1948, and de Kooning's abstract works - to put it simply - were too little part for his understanding the real and malleable living environment, which he increasingly sought to integrate into his art-life equation. The discipline Albers demanded and the methodological-theoretical approach to the creation of art seduced Rauschenberg - as he himself said - to always do "exactly the opposite" of what Albers taught. Instead of implementing Alber's color theory on canvas, the young Rauschenberg cut black squares out of wood and painted monochrome black and white pictures in protest. The breakthrough followed 15 years later at the Venice Biennale, where he received the international painting prize in 1964.

The graphite drawing erased by Rauschenberg with de Kooning's consent is the icon of this paradigm shift in art from the 1950s to Pop Art.

White, Black and Red Paintings

Rauschenberg took the step towards artistic independence in 1951 with the white pictures , the seven monochrome-white panels of his White Painting , which he exhibited in his first solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery , New York, and which had the purpose of “painting to extinguish ". Here the topic of “silence” was also addressed, as was the active inclusion of the daytime lighting conditions or the shadow forms of the viewer in the picture. With the White Paintings made from conventional wall paint, Rauschenberg thematized the standard for his oeuvre to combine art and life. In 1951 he erased a drawing by his New York colleague Willem de Kooning, a no less radical gesture to settle with the overwhelming power of American Abstract Expressionism.

The black pictures were also made around 1951. Here Rauschenberg proceeded as follows: he painted the canvases with glossy black paint and then painted over them with matt black paint. Robert Rauschenberg used the color black to make the traces of tradition and his own conditioning disappear underneath and to reinvent her basic vocabulary. For Rauschenberg, black stood for self-limitation to the quasi-nothing, which served him as a starting point in his search for himself. For Rauschenberg, black also meant not knowing how things would go on artistically for him. The color black seems to be associated with a process of transformation. It can be interpreted as a means of crossing borders - as crossing borders from the visible to the invisible, from the material to the spiritual, from the conscious to the unconscious. The fact that black pictures are an expression of change could be explained by their nocturnal properties. The night represents change in mysticism, mythology, art and literature. Seeing in the dark changes perception. The longer you stay in the dark, the more you get involved in it, the more clearly the environment is contoured. The process of seeing moves into focus - a conscious, perhaps more precise seeing. One may even leave behind the wish to want to recognize the environment. Because then the night enables the special quality of not (s) seeing, which corresponds to not knowing. This ignorance as a form of purification is in turn a prerequisite for change.

In the light of the history of the development of Abstract Expressionism, the impression arises that the American artists, especially in the years between 1950 and 1965, were also carried away by the idea of ​​breaking free from the formative influence of European tradition and with New York - alongside Paris - a new center of the avant-garde. Against this background, the Black Paintings seem like the expression of a collective striving for artistic self-assertion. Looking at a black picture with your eyes open is like seeing at night. The artist who opts for black demands a vision from the eye that gets used to darkness: the eye meets black; the supposed not being able to see (s) causes a being able to see differently, a more differentiated seeing: for example the recognition of nuances in structure and color. The more difficult view increases the concentration on the visible and invisible, maybe even on the essence of things and oneself. This applies initially to the viewer of the picture, but on an existential level it can also apply to the artist. (see Black Paintings )

The red pictures arose from Rauschenberg's reaction to the lack of understanding of the previous white and black pictures. His teacher Albers had taught him humility towards color and so he tried to dare to try the color that was the most difficult in his eyes: red.

To this day, this series of pictures of whites, blacks and reds is considered the most radical by Rauschenberg.

Happenings, music and theater

By emphasizing the tension between the work of art and the living environment, Rauschenberg tied directly to the work of his friend John Cage , who, in order to open up new areas of sound, included everyday noises in his compositions . With Cage and the dancer Merce Cunningham , Rauschenberg has repeatedly been the initiator of happenings and theater performances. He was mostly responsible for the stage design, costumes and props, but also for developing the choreography and appeared as a member of the performing ensemble himself. Between 1964 and 1968 he staged 11 choreographies.

Combine painting and combines

His works representing this style were mostly created in the period from 1953 to the early 1960s. These are neodadaist collages , consisting of a combination of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, expressed through paintings in connection with objects of daily life attached to them (for example lightbulbs, kitchen utensils, postcards, comics, graphic prints, leftover wallpaper, stuffed animals, radios etc.), some of which were painted over. Painting is "combined" with objects and thus expands into three-dimensional space. That is why the traditional border between painting and sculpture has been abolished.

Rauschenberg said about his works that they are characterized by reality. In his view, painting was at the crossroads between art and life and he was trying to bridge the gap that separated it.

The preoccupation with found objects, everyday material, had influenced him in a work phase in which he opened his studio in the middle of New York. The so-called “Elemental Sculptures” were created, experimental works made of cobblestones and other found materials that he found in the immediate vicinity of his studio. The sculptures stand between “ ready mades ” and Dadaist assemblages, whereby Rauschenberg emphasized the uniqueness of these found objects and did not want to reevaluate them in a context shift. In these works, on the one hand, the development of Pop Art is largely based, on the other hand, this is the starting point for Rauschenberg's further work development, insofar as image and sculpture are pursued as independent areas. In the "Combines", Rauschenberg distinguished between the " Combine Paintings " and the free-standing "Combines" such as "Odalisque" from 1955/58 or one of his most famous with the title "Monogram" (1959). The Combines often reveal a satirical intention and are ironic paraphrases of dreams of consumer society and of typical figures of our time.

One of the most impressive “Combine Paintings” is “First Time Painting” (1961), which was originally called “Happening Theater of the American Embassy”. It was created at a happening organized by Darthea Speyer in June 1961 in the theater of the American embassy in Paris. David Tudor played the composition Variations II by the American composer John Cage for the action on the piano . In addition to Rauschenberg, Niki de Saint-Phalle , Jean Tinguely and Jasper Johns also took part. The documentary photo sequence of the creation of the picture shows Rauschenberg's painterly development from Abstract Expressionism to the successive adoption of Pop Art elements from everyday reality in an expressive synthesis.

Photography and screen printing

Robert Rauschenberg (1968)

In 1962 Rauschenberg discovered the screen printing process at the same time as Andy Warhol's first photomechanically reproduced screen prints . But unlike Warhol, he avoided the stereotypical repetition and isolation of the motif in favor of a complex content-related statement that speaks directly to the viewer's political and social awareness: “I want to wake people up,” says Rauschenberg, “I want people to do that Look at material and react to it. I would like to make them aware of their individual responsibility, both for themselves and for the rest of humanity. How easy it is to be complacent to the world. The fact that you are spending a few pennies on a newspaper almost calms your conscience. By reading it, you think you've already done your part. And you wrap your conscience in the newspaper like you wrap your garbage in it. "

In the autumn he began to use the screen printing technique on his canvases. He developed a method of transferring printed materials (images and texts) using solvents. Rauschenberg achieved the transfer of three-dimensional objects, textiles and fabrics onto the surface using light-sensitive lithographic stones. This allowed him to combine freely executed parts with photos and objects and thus all available templates. Further advantages of the photomechanical offset process lay in its enlargement and the color intensity.

In 1962, Rauschenberg began with his first lithographs . From working with various prints, he transferred much of his knowledge back to the medium of drawing .

In combined techniques of screen printing and lithography, grandiose works were created with the frequent theme of the interaction between man and technology, such as Booster (1967). They are among the largest prints that Rauschenberg has produced.

EAT

In the late 1960s to early 1970s, Rauschenberg began to experiment with electronics and, together with Billy Klüver, founded the "Experiments in Art and Technology" (EAT) project. Image objects and sculptures were created that integrated sounds and music or reacted to noises. The aim was to found a non-commercial society that should encourage collaboration between artists and engineers and hope for a happy future for global society. This resulted in four complicated, multimedia and interactive works such as Oracle (1965), Soundings (1968), Solstice (1968) and Mud-Muse (1971).

1970s and 1980s as well as ROCI

In the 1970s Rauschenberg tried different materials such as cardboard (cardboars and cardbirs) and transparent fabrics (hoarfrosts) and he tried to increase the effect by symmetrical arrangement of structurally very similar elements (bifocals). His works are light, they are placed in the room and occasionally the floor and ceiling are connected to one another and covered with semi-transparent fabric. In 1973/74, for example, Sant'Agnese, Untitled (Venetian) was created.

There was a hesitant opening towards the color. Here you can see the influence of Josef Albers - Rauschenberg's teacher at Black Mountain College. This imposed a careful use of color on him.

At the end of the 1970s Rauschenberg began with The ¼ Mile or 2 Furlong Piece : The work was supposed to be an answer to the confusions of the time such as desperation about Cambodia or Vietnam. The work is over 400 meters long and consists of collages, paintings and objects. It is a direct reflection of the artist on his time - a chronicle of his imaginations, experiences, fears and obsessions.

In 1983 Rauschenberg remembered techniques that he had used 20 years earlier. He was concerned with capturing, recovering and preserving images that were originally intended in a different context. Rauschenberg took up the screen printing technique again on a broader scale for large-format canvases. Now he no longer took his motifs from the mass media, but based his own photos.

For Rauschenberg, the 1970s and 1980s were generally a time of big projects, trips and collaborations. In 1971, he moved from New York to Captiva Island, Florida, and started his own publishing company and studio, as well as Change Inc. , a nonprofit that provides funding to artists in need.

In 1984 the global project Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) began , a traveling exhibition with a changing inventory of around 200 works of art that were created in cooperation with artists and craftsmen in the respective countries. The artist traveled to ten countries from 1984 to 1991 in order to process each culture-specific artistically - in collaboration with the local artists. The stations were Cuba and Chile, Venezuela, Tibet and Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Malaysia, Japan and Berlin - in 1990 still as the capital of the GDR. "ROCI started with my decision to do something about the world crisis," he said. "Instead of a midlife crisis, I went on a world tour."

Riding Bikes , Berlin, 1998

The New York Guggenheim Museum opened Rauschenberg's world tour in 1998 with 400 - including more recent - works. The second stop was Houston in the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts . There was talk of a Rauschenberg renaissance. The 72-year-old artist was present with his 94-year-old mother and danced to the washboard sounds of a Tejano band after the vernissage in the Bayou Club. That was reminiscent of the musical streak of the all-round talent and Grammy Prize winner, who worked in Merce Cunningham's dance company from 1951 to 1965 , created, choreographed and composed stage decorations. The factory show, at least, then went to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne with 300 works . With 80 Rauschenberg works it is the most important and largest collection in Europe. Thanks to the collector Peter Ludwig , the discoverer and supporter of Rauschenberg, you can still follow Rauschenberg's career here to the very beginning.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, founded in 1990, is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research projects and socio-political education.

The artist Rauschenberg has always remained present alongside these activities - the pictures and sculptures from the 1990s show him as an inventive continuation of the “Combines” concept developed in the 1950s, that is, his claim to transform reality into art with as little loss as possible.

Position in art criticism and classification in art history

Rauschenberg's first major recognition was the gold medal at the Venice Biennale in 1964. He won a Grammy Award for his cover for the Talking Heads album Speaking in Tongues . In 1998 he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale , a kind of " Nobel Prize for Art" from the Japanese imperial family . Robert Rauschenberg participated in documenta II (1959), documenta III (1964), 4th documenta (1968) and also documenta 6 in 1977 in Kassel . In 1978 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

In terms of art history, Rauschenberg is regarded as a pioneer of American Pop Art, although his multi-layered work can be assigned to more than one style. "There is no other artist of the 20th century who crossed so many genre and style boundaries as Robert Rauschenberg."

His use of everyday objects in the Combine paintings was an important example of the method of assemblage , the objet trouvé and the arte povera . Rauschenberg is a postmodern artist. Rauschenberg constantly asked the following questions in his work: How is something perceived by whom? What is memory and what is time, what is a picture and what is an object? How do production and reception behave? Rauschenberg's main theme was communication and perception. He was also interested in the epistemological problem - the question of how continuity and change relate to one another.

Rauschenberg's pictorial approach was based on two basic principles of modernism: collage and readymade, and he was primarily a graphic artist and painter. He thought in terms of surfaces and understood the room as a space for movement - this confirms his commitment to dance. He was interested in matter, shape, function and motor skills; Objective more than spatial and sign more than plastic volume.

For Rauschenberg anything could be art - there is equality among things. Everything can serve art, everything has its beauty and justification. This was shown formally in his works: in his complex works one hardly comes across a prominent center. He rejected hierarchical structures and prefers a democratic distribution of motives - an equal coexistence of motives.

His art seeks direct contact with the viewer. He did not rule out any formal solutions from the outset and ignored cultural, geographical and financial boundaries.

Among the visual artists, Rauschenberg was the most important and most active protagonist of a synthesis of art and technology and his depictions are to a high degree an expression of the cultural and socio-political realities of the phase in which they were conceived and created.

Biographical

The painter, who with a wink of the eye referred to himself as a "street dog mix", had German and Indian roots: his grandfather, who came from Berlin , had married a Cherokee . Rauschenberg lived and worked on Captiva Island . Since 1998 he had a hip problem; since 2002 he has been in a wheelchair after a stroke with symptoms of paralysis. The work he designed was implemented with the help of assistants. Robert Rauschenberg was dyslexic .

He died in 2008 at the age of 82 on Captiva Island, Florida.

Quotes

  • "For me, art has to do with everything."
  • "I believe that a work of art is more real when it is made from parts of the real world."
  • "I hate ideas, if I do have one, I go for a walk to forget them."
  • "Art shouldn't have a concept ... That is the only concept that applied consistently to me."
  • "There is no such thing as a finished work of art for me."

Important solo exhibitions

literature

  • J. Wissmann: Robert Rauschenberg - Black Market . Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970
  • G. Adrian: Robert Rauschenberg . R. Piper & Co. Verlag, Munich 1979
  • State Art Gallery Berlin : Robert Rauschenberg . Berlin 1980
  • H. Bastian: Beuys, Rauschenberg, Twombly, Warhol . Prestel Verlag, Munich 1982
  • B. Rose: Robert Rauschenberg . Art Today No. 3; Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1989
  • R. Rauschenberg in conversation with Barbara Rose. Translated from the American by L. Gorris. Cologne 1989.
  • Leo Steinberg: Encounters with Rauschenberg (a lavishly illustrated lecture) . Houston / Chicago / London 2000.
  • A. Second: Robert Rauschenberg . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2004
  • J. Tesch, E. Holland (Ed.): Art of the 20th century . Prestel Verlag, Munich 2005
  • art - the art magazine ; No. 12/2006, pp. 42-53
  • Hanno Rauterberg: Interview with RR: »I have my heaven«. In: DIE ZEIT January 12, 2006 No. 3. The artist of the century Robert Rauschenberg is 80 years old and sick, the time that remains for him is for his pictures. He no longer wants to give interviews. But then he does speak - about his German origins, his love of garbage art and the fear of dying

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmut Schneider: Drawings by Robert Rauschenberg in Tübingen: Somewhere between art and life . In: The time . May 25, 1979, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on February 23, 2020]).
  2. First Time Painting was acquired by Karl Ströher in the 1960s , then came on loan to the MMK in 1981 with the bundle of the Ströher collection acquired by the City of Frankfurt for the Museum of Modern Art and was finally transferred to the Marx Collection by the Ströher heirs sold.
  3. ^ Peter Iden , Rolf Lauter : Pictures for Frankfurt. Inventory catalog of the Museum of Modern Art. Munich 1985, p. 191f. ISBN 978-3-7913-0702-2
  4. ^ First Time Painting. August 27, 2014, accessed on February 23, 2020 .
  5. [1] in: Focus, No. 26 of June 22, 1998, p. 104
  6. [2] in: Focus, No. 26 of June 22, 1998, p. 102
  7. ^ Members: Robert Rauschenberg. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 21, 2019 .
  8. Hanno Rauterberg, in: Die Zeit from May 14, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Robert Rauschenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files