Robert Rauschenberg

While at other times, especially from 1983 forward, Rauschenberg used his own photographs in his work, all of the images that the artist sourced for this set of drawings were culled from printed media—Soviet Life, Scientific American, and Fort Myers News-Press, among other national and international news outlets. The use of a printing press for the application of his trademark transfer technique lends a uniquely mechanical connection to the sourcing of the images from mass media, thus masking the artist’s hand in the transfer process. This approach would become a key characteristic of his practice which he first began experimenting with during a trip to Cuba in 1952 and would embrace throughout the rest of his career. Through his use of the printing press to develop evenly transferred images, Rauschenberg was engaging with the history of mechanical reproduction, which would enable the dissemination of a single image in multiples and drastically alter the course of the 20th century.

To further enliven these drawings, Rauschenberg made gestural marks on top of the overlaid photographs through the use of watercolor and acrylic and added pencil strokes. Equally important are the areas of the grid that he left blank, which create a dialogue between absence and presence on the plane. Nonetheless, with the application of grids, these drawings attest to Rauschenberg’s disregard for the limits of parameter in his work. Emblematic of the rapid technical changes of the 20th century, these works offer a glimpse into a particular window of time in modern history and further blur the distinction between art and life, a central theme in understanding Rauschenberg’s comprehensive oeuvre.