Rauschenberg

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Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925. Through out his life, Rauschenberg went many different directions in regards to his professional life. He studied pharmacy at the University of Texas. After some time he joined the U.S. Marines and then took classes at the Kansas Art Institute. Later he studied in Paris, France where he also met his wife, Susan Weil. He continued to study art in various locations and with many different artists, composers, and others in the artistic realm. While studying art, he mainly worked coordinating window displays for companies like Tiffany.

Rauschenberg spent some time working on all black and white paintings, but began using red when he moved to New York. He also created what became known as Combines, which were combinations of everyday objects fused together in both painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg incorporated a great deal of highly influential historical events into his work. One of those events was the liftoff of Apollo 11, which he was invited to by NASA as one of the themes of his artwork.

Besides his influence on the pop art movement, Rauschenberg found it in himself to help other struggling artists in the area, setting up Change, Inc., which was a home set up with art studios. Rauschenberg found time to travel the world and promote both peace and understanding through his art. He traveled to Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, China, Tibet, Japan, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Berlin, and Malaysia where he set up his exhibitions. He called this ROCI – for Rauschenberg’s Overseas Culture Interchange. His exhibition was also held at the National Gallery of Art in celebration of the gallery’s 50th anniversary.

Although he used many different techniques, one that Rauschenberg is more well-known for is his lithographic works. The above work is a lithograph entitled “Back Out” that was completed in 1979. He completed this work in a suite of 9 prints. The techniques used included pencil, stencil, and collage. There are many different pictures put into this work, one of a baseball player, and another of a high jumper. As for the overall meaning or purpose of the work, I am not really sure what he is trying to convey. I can assume that this work is about the United States, possibly alluding to sports culture.

To me, more important that the techniques of his work and his major accomplishments or awards, Rauschenberg was an artist that was committed to a cause. He spent a great deal of time working on art with a great deal of meaning. Through his art pieces, his work was used to communicate peace and understanding all over the world. Personally, I felt like class on Thursday was very beneficial, and would be beneficial to any person with an artistic inclination. I feel more of a personal investment toward my art and will try to use the type of communication that my art allows me.

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