R0bert Rauschenberg Bibliography. a selection
Robert Rauschenberg: Photographs: 1949-1962
. Robert Rauschenberg’s engagement with photography began in the late 1940s under the tutelage of Hazel Larsen Archer at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. This exposure (or experience) was so great that for a time Rauschenberg was unsure whether to pursue painting or photography as a career. Instead, he chose both, and found ways to fold photography into his Combines, maintained a practice of photographing friends and family, documented the evolution of artworks and occasionally dramatized them by inserting himself into the picture frame. As Walter Hopps wrote, “The use of photography has long been an essential device for Rauschenberg’s melding of imagery… [and] a vital means for Rauschenberg’s aesthetic investigations of how humans perceive, select and combine visual information.
Rauschenberg: Art and Life. An energetic Texan from a traditional Southern upbringing, Robert Rauschenberg wanted to be a minister but became an artist instead. His rags-to-riches story—like his art—is quintessentially American. But this biography of the painter, which was originally published in 1990 and has now been revised and expanded, is more descriptive than analytical. Focusing on the inspiration and fabrication of Rauschenberg’s works rather than on critical interpretation, Kotz’s homage glosses over sources of conflict or scandal, such as Rauschenberg’s failed first marriage and his falling-outs with Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham, two early and important friends and collaborators.
Robert Rauschenberg: Combines. Poetic and lush, Robert Rauschenberg’s Combines present layers of complex and sometimes conflicting information. This approach, first explored by Rauschenberg in the early 1950s, proved prescient and has become increasingly relevant in the current age of cascading information, when even the most ground-breaking artists are referencing and sampling disparate elements to create new forms. The Combines suggest the fragility of definitions, the fluidity of materials and the complexity of forms that are characteristic of Rauschenberg’s works. The artist’s handling of materials provides a precise physical evolutionary link between the painterly qualities of Abstract Expressionism and iconographical, subject-driven early Pop art.
Artist biography, artworks, statement, interview, review, exhibition:
Auctions & Auction Results
From leading auction houses worldwide, Robert Rauschenberg on Mutualart
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