Painter, costume designer, photographer, choreographer, and collaborator are only a few of the ways to describe Robert Rauschenberg. In approaching his work, Rauschenberg was a perpetual and intentional novice, moving between media often and changing his practice “as soon as working in a certain way became too easy for him.” This is evident in his approach to painting, photography, and theater created over six prolific decades. Early in his career, Rauschenberg was ascribed the moniker enfant terrible and his work was often negatively received by critics and viewers. While establishing himself as an Abstract Expressionist, he challenged what was understood as art. Drawn to the stage through his friendship with Merce Cunningham, Rauschenberg also did set design and costumes for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
Early Life
Born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1925, Rauschenberg studied pharmacology at the University of Texas before being drafted into the US Navy in 1944. After serving, he enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute and changed his name to Robert. In 1948 and with the support of the GI Bill, Rauschenberg attended the Académie Julian in Paris and met his future wife, Susan Weil. Rauschenberg and Weil then studied at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, where they met choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham. During this formative time at the famous experimental college and arts education center, Rauschenberg studied painting under Josef Albers.
Early Work
In 1951, Rauschenberg had his first solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery in New York after initially approaching Parsons for a critique of his works. Instead of a critique, the young artist was offered a spring show. During this time, Rauschenberg also completed his White Painting series, developed his collaboration with Cunningham, and created the first Combines, which he worked on between 1952 and 1964. His aim through the Combines was to close the gap between art and life. “Painting relates to both art and life,” Rauschenberg would say. “Neither can be made. I try to act in the gap between the two.” Some of the artist’s White Paintings were reworked into the first Combines. Through the interdisciplinary environment at Black Mountain College, Rauschenberg collaborated with composer John Cage on a production in 1952. In 1954, Rauschenberg worked with the Paul Taylor Dance Company as a costume and set designer—the first of many such collaborations between Rauschenberg and Taylor.
Mid-Career Works
The 1970s were a productive decade for Rauschenberg. In 1976, a mid-career retrospective was exhibited at what is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. From 1984 through 1991, Rauschenberg worked steadily with the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) to foster artistic dialogue by promoting cross-cultural understanding through art. One of the countries that Rauschenberg visited during this time was Chile. His visit to a copper mine and foundry in the Latin American country inspired Rauschenberg’s Copperhead series. Using copper supports for silkscreened photographs and tarnishing agents, Rauschenberg captured images of bodies of water, animals, textiles, and life in Chile.
Collaboration with Merce Cunningham
While attending Black Mountain College, Rauschenberg started his partnership with Merce Cunningham and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC), which was formed in 1953. Their collaboration would continue through 1964. In 1954, Rauschenberg created the first of his Combine works, Minutiae, for the décor for Cunningham’s dance of the same name. The first performance of Minutiae was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Rauschenberg’s vibrantly painted multipaneled set piece was designed with fabric, newsprint, and a mirror, allowing the dancers to move through it, around it, and under it. As the set designer and costume designer for MCDC’s Nocturnes (1956), Rauschenberg sectioned the stage into two areas: one main space that was spacious and flooded with light, and another, partitioned with a scrim and dimly lit to create the illusion of moths on a window screen. Nocturnes’ costumes were all white—white tights and leotards for women and white shirts for men. The makeup was also designed by Rauschenberg: and the men’s faces were painted half white with the other half painted either red, yellow, or blue. For the female dancers, Rauschenberg designed veil-like headdresses. Their consistent collaboration continued until 1964 with Winterbranch, then resumed for Travelogue (1977) and Interscape (2000). Their last collaboration before Rauschenberg’s death was XOVER (2007), which featured a backdrop adapted from the painting Plank (2003) from Rauschenberg’s Scenario series (2002–2006). For the costumes, dancers wore sleeveless white leotards.
Awards and Recognition
In 1963, Rauschenberg was awarded the International Grand Prize in Painting for his participation in the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. That same year, the first major retrospective of his work was held at the Jewish Museum in New York. He would go on to have solo exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout the world, including at the ICA Philadelphia (1970); Musée d’Art et d’Industrie, Saint Étienne, France (1974); the Smithsonian, Washington DC (1976); Staatliche Kunsthalle, Berlin (1980); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1982 and 1999). In 1966, Rauschenberg was awarded a major prize at the 2nd Inter-American Biennial of Printmaking in Santiago, Chile. In 1976, Rauschenberg is awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida, Tampa. In 2016, London’s Tate Modern staged the retrospective exhibition Robert Rauschenberg, which then traveled to the US for showings at MoMA and SFMOMA. After his death, Rauschenberg received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art from the Kansas City Arts Institute (2010) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Medal of Arts (2009).
“I’ve always felt as though, whatever I’ve used and whatever I’ve done, the method was always closer to a collaboration with materials than to any kind of conscious manipulation and control.” —Robert Rauschenberg
)
)