{"data":{"id":"1074","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1074,"topgoose_id":848,"tms_id":1074,"display_name":"Robert Rauschenberg","sort_name":"Rauschenberg Robert","display_date":"1925–2008","begin_date":"1925","end_date":"2008","biography":"\u003cp\u003eThroughout a career that spanned more\nthan half a century, Robert Rauschenberg\nremained a relentlessly pioneering figure\nin American art. Employing a cross-\ndisciplinary approach, he inventively fused\npainting, sculpture, collage, photography,\nand printmaking into new, hybrid forms.\nHis interest in using everyday items in his\nwork—perhaps developed in reaction\nto the formal investigations of his Abstract\nExpressionist predecessors—led him to\nincorporate an array of found imagery and\nobjects culled from the world around\nhim. As he famously stated: “Painting relates\nto both art and life. . . . I try to act in that\ngap between the two.”\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eYoicks\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, created in 1954, the artist\nlayered red paint, fabric, and newspaper,\nechoing the innovations of early twentieth-\ncentury Dada collage and signaling\nthe growing importance of assemblage\ntechniques in the 1950s. That same\nyear Rauschenberg embarked on a body\nof works referred to as “Combines”—\ncompositions that contain aspects of both\npainting and sculpture. These explorations\nbegan with Combine paintings, which\nwere mounted on the wall, and later\nshifted to emphatically three-dimensional,\nfreestanding works. In the Combine painting\n\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/7506\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSatellite\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e the artist included a stuffed\npheasant, delicately perched atop the work,\nand embedded a pair of socks, among\nother items, within the composition. “A pair\nof socks,” he later asserted, “is no less\nsuitable to make a painting with than wood,\nnails, turpentine, oil, and fabric.” Although\nhe resisted specific interpretations of\nthese works, Rauschenberg acknowledged\nthat his choice of materials was in part\na reflection of postwar American culture:\n“I was bombarded with TV sets and\nmagazines, by the refuse, by the excess\nof the world. . . . I thought that if I could paint\nor make an honest work, it should\nincorporate all of these elements, which\nwere and are a reality.”\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the early 1970s, after relocating\nfrom New York to Captiva, Florida, Rauschenberg turned his attention to\nworking with found cardboard boxes. As he\nlater explained: “When I moved to Florida . . .\nI thought, okay . . . [I] can’t be dependent\non the surplus and refuse of an urban\nsociety. So, what material, no matter where\nI was in the world, would be available?\nCardboard boxes! It was sort of a practical,\nrational decision.” With minimal manipulation\nand no decorative flourishes, Rauschenberg\ncombined the boxes into a series of\nwall sculptures called the \u003cem\u003eCardboards\u003c/em\u003e.\nWhile renewing his long-standing interest in\ncollage-based work, his emphasis on a\nmore straightforward formal engagement\nwith the humble medium connects the\nwork to the approach and modest materials\nof the Arte Povera artists working in Italy\nduring the late 1960s and early 1970s.\u003cem\u003e\n\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/46714\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eGlass/Channel/Via Panama (Cardboard)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\nfeatures five wall-mounted and freestanding\ncartons with lettering and markings\ndenoting their former contents and origins,\nincluding “Fragile Glass” and “New York\nvia Panama.”\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\nIn the \u003cem\u003eCardboards\u003c/em\u003e, as with most\nof his work, Rauschenberg resisted\nrepeating the tropes of earlier movements,\nas well as his peers’ predilection for\nthe Minimalist cube, explaining with his\nsignature wit: “The cardboard was\nreally stubborn and attempted to make me\na cubist, and I wouldn’t let it happen.”\nThe series thus marked yet another period\nof active experimentation in a prolific\ncareer that left an indelible mark on\ntwentieth-century art.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":true,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500002941","wikidata_id":"Q164358","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:55:04.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-10T07:02:48.199-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1074/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1074/exhibitions"}}}}