ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: WORKS ON METAL AT GAGOSIAN BEVERLY HILLS
November 1, 2014 - December 13, 2014
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: WORKS ON METAL AT GAGOSIAN BEVERLY HILLS
November 1, 2014 - December 13, 2014
‘’ I like seeing people using materials that one’s not accustomed to seeing in art. That has a particular value. New materials have fresh associations, physical properties and qualities that have built into them the possibility of forcing you or helping you do something else ’’.
Robert Rauschenberg
In collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Gagosian Beverly Hills is pleased to announce an exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s works on metal of the 1980s and 1990s. This will be the first major presentation of his work on the West Coast since MOCA’s acclaimed traveling exhibition of the Combines in 2006.
Rauschenberg’s protean outlook ushered in a new era of postwar American art in the wake of Abstract Expressionism with a free and experimental approach that drew inspiration from conceptual, materialist, and gestural precedents. His inventive use of discarded materials and appropriated images eviscerated distinctions between medium and genre, abstraction and representation, while his “flatbed picture plane,” which absorbed found objects into the realm of paintings, forever changed the relationship between artwork and viewer.
“Works on Metal” traces Rauschenberg’s obsession, beginning in the mid-1980s, with the potential of metal. Exchanging canvas for flat sheets of metal mounted directly to the wall, he worked in consequent series using aluminum, brass, copper, and bronze, harnessing the natural hues and reflections of each. He then juxtaposed their intrinsic qualities with secondary processes, from the application of acrylic and enamel paints and silkscreened photographic images to his fine-tuning of chemical reactions and manipulation of industrial scrap and refuse.
For his prescient project of global diplomacy known as ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, 1984 - 91), Rauschenberg worked and exhibited in eleven countries including Chile and Cuba, silkscreening photographic images taken during his extensive travels onto huge sheets of copper and stainless steel. Drawing upon this bountiful image bank, his ongoing investigation of painting on metal would prove to be one of the most inventive periods of his career, taking on ever new inflections as he traveled to Mexico, Germany, Tibet, the former U.S.S.R., Venezuela, and other locations. In the Urban Bourbon series (1988–96), reflective depths overlap with fragmented photography and gestural brushwork; in the Borealis paintings (1988–92), chemicals and ammonium salts were applied to brass, copper, and bronze sheets to achieve corrosive effects; in the steely Night Shades (1991), acids were used to rapidly tarnish the mirrored and brushed aluminum surfaces.
Parallel to his works on flat metal surfaces, Rauschenberg collected discarded automotive parts, gas station signs, and other scrap materials, which he manipulated into both freestanding and wall-mounted sculptures; the so-called Gluts echoed the Combines in their reconfiguration of found objects. Rauschenberg referred to the Gluts (1986–89/1991–94), which he continued to produce after the seven-year ROCI. tour, as “souvenirs without nostalgia;” he aimed to create art that was “as fresh, strange and unpredictable as what’s going on around you.” In the conceptual and material breadth of the metal works, Rauschenberg fulfilled the partial relinquishing of authorship, allowing art to integrate with the mess of life.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Joachim Pissarro.
‘’ I like seeing people using materials that one’s not accustomed to seeing in art. That has a particular value. New materials have fresh associations, physical properties and qualities that have built into them the possibility of forcing you or helping you do something else ’’.
Robert Rauschenberg
In collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Gagosian Beverly Hills is pleased to announce an exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s works on metal of the 1980s and 1990s. This will be the first major presentation of his work on the West Coast since MOCA’s acclaimed traveling exhibition of the Combines in 2006.
Rauschenberg’s protean outlook ushered in a new era of postwar American art in the wake of Abstract Expressionism with a free and experimental approach that drew inspiration from conceptual, materialist, and gestural precedents. His inventive use of discarded materials and appropriated images eviscerated distinctions between medium and genre, abstraction and representation, while his “flatbed picture plane,” which absorbed found objects into the realm of paintings, forever changed the relationship between artwork and viewer.
“Works on Metal” traces Rauschenberg’s obsession, beginning in the mid-1980s, with the potential of metal. Exchanging canvas for flat sheets of metal mounted directly to the wall, he worked in consequent series using aluminum, brass, copper, and bronze, harnessing the natural hues and reflections of each. He then juxtaposed their intrinsic qualities with secondary processes, from the application of acrylic and enamel paints and silkscreened photographic images to his fine-tuning of chemical reactions and manipulation of industrial scrap and refuse.
For his prescient project of global diplomacy known as ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, 1984 - 91), Rauschenberg worked and exhibited in eleven countries including Chile and Cuba, silkscreening photographic images taken during his extensive travels onto huge sheets of copper and stainless steel. Drawing upon this bountiful image bank, his ongoing investigation of painting on metal would prove to be one of the most inventive periods of his career, taking on ever new inflections as he traveled to Mexico, Germany, Tibet, the former U.S.S.R., Venezuela, and other locations. In the Urban Bourbon series (1988–96), reflective depths overlap with fragmented photography and gestural brushwork; in the Borealis paintings (1988–92), chemicals and ammonium salts were applied to brass, copper, and bronze sheets to achieve corrosive effects; in the steely Night Shades (1991), acids were used to rapidly tarnish the mirrored and brushed aluminum surfaces.
Parallel to his works on flat metal surfaces, Rauschenberg collected discarded automotive parts, gas station signs, and other scrap materials, which he manipulated into both freestanding and wall-mounted sculptures; the so-called Gluts echoed the Combines in their reconfiguration of found objects. Rauschenberg referred to the Gluts (1986–89/1991–94), which he continued to produce after the seven-year ROCI. tour, as “souvenirs without nostalgia;” he aimed to create art that was “as fresh, strange and unpredictable as what’s going on around you.” In the conceptual and material breadth of the metal works, Rauschenberg fulfilled the partial relinquishing of authorship, allowing art to integrate with the mess of life.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Joachim Pissarro.
http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/robert-rauschenberg--november-01-2014
BUMPER SLIP LATE SUMMER GLUT 1987 ( DETAIL )
BUMPER SLIP LATE
SUMMER GLUT 1987
Assembled Metal Parts
Dimensions: 139.7 x 167.6 x 50.8 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Assembled Metal Parts
Dimensions: 139.7 x 167.6 x 50.8 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Licensed by VAGA, New
York
Photo by Rob McKeever
Photo by Rob McKeever
BUMPER SLIP LATE SUMMER GLUT 1987 ( DETAIL )
BUMPER SLIP LATE SUMMER GLUT 1987 ( DETAIL )
BUSH SOCKS ( BOREALIS ) 1992 ( DETAIL )
%2C%2B1992.jpg)
BUSH SOCKS ( BOREALIS
) 1992
Tarnishes on Copper and Acrylic
Dimensions: 245.9 x 124 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Tarnishes on Copper and Acrylic
Dimensions: 245.9 x 124 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Licensed by VAGA, New
York
Photo by Rob McKeever
Photo by Rob McKeever
CATCH ( URBAN BOURBON ) 1993
ISRAEL MUSEUM 1974
Rauschenberg Working
on Scripture (1974) for Rauschenberg in
Israel Exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1974.
Works in Background are Scripture I and
Israel Exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1974.
Works in Background are Scripture I and
Two Untitled Works (all 1974)
Photo: Nir Bareket
ESTATE
1963
Oil
and Silkscreen Ink on Canvas
Dimensions: 243.2 × 177.2 cm
©
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
SOUSA PARK SUMMER GLUT 1987 ( DETAIL )
SOUSA PARK SUMMER GLUT
1987
Assembled Metal Parts
Dimensions: 165.1 x 193 x 48.3 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Assembled Metal Parts
Dimensions: 165.1 x 193 x 48.3 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Licensed by VAGA, New
York
Photo by Rob McKeever
Photo by Rob McKeever
SOUSA PARK SUMMER GLUT 1987 ( DETAIL )
%2C%2B1993.jpg)
AQUA FANFARE ( URBAN
BOURBON ) 1993,
Acrylic on Copper and
Mirrored Aluminum,
Dimensions: 184.9 x
124 cm
© The Robert
Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York.
Photo by Rob McKeever
SCANNING 1963
Oil and Silkscreen Ink on Canvas
Dimensions: 141.6 × 185.4
cm
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
CAPE CANAVERAL 1984
Rauschenberg Working on His Portrayal
of the Discovery Space Shuttle,
Near the Cape Canaveral Launchpad, Florida,
August 1984
Photo: Theo Westenberger Archives,
1974-2008, Autry National Center,
Los Angeles; MSA.25.58
BOOSTER 1967
Lithograph and Screenprint on Paper
Dimensions: 182.9 × 90.2
cm
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
HOMAGE TO DAVID TUDOR 1961
Rauschenberg Creating First
Time Painting (1961) During Homage to David Tudor, Théâtre de
l’Ambassade des États-Unis, Paris, June 20, 1961
Photo: Shunk-Kender © Roy Lichtenstein
Foundation
%2C%2B1991.jpg)
EGYPTIAN CHICK ( NIGHT
SHADE ) 1991
Tarnishes on Brushed Aluminum
Dimensions: 124.5 x 94 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Tarnishes on Brushed Aluminum
Dimensions: 124.5 x 94 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Licensed by VAGA, New
York
Photo by Rob McKeever
Photo by Rob McKeever
%2C%2B1989.jpg)
ELEPHANT TALE ( URBAN
BOURBON ) 1989
Acrylic and Enamel on Enameled and Mirrored Aluminum with Bronze Frame
Dimensions: 215.3 x 245.7 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Acrylic and Enamel on Enameled and Mirrored Aluminum with Bronze Frame
Dimensions: 215.3 x 245.7 cm
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Licensed by VAGA, New
York
ELEPHANT TALE ( URBAN BOURBON ) 1989 ( DETAIL )
ELEPHANT TALE ( URBAN BOURBON ) 1989 ( DETAIL )
RASPUTIN’S REVENGE
EARLY WINTER ( GLUT ) 1987
Assembled Metal Parts
with Plastic Coated Chain,
Dimensions: 157.5 x
248.3 x 33.7 cm
© The Robert
Rauschenberg Foundation 2014
Licensed by VAGA, New
York.
Photo by Rob McKeever
NAPLES
1986
Rauschenberg
in a Junkyard Looking for Source
Material
for his Gluts Series,
Naples, Italy, December 1986
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ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
Robert Rauschenberg ushered in a new era of
postwar American art in the wake of Abstract Expressionism. His approach, along
with that of his contemporary Jasper Johns, was sometimes termed “Neo-Dada,”
due to its relation to both European forebears and the physical gestures of
American Abstract Expressionists. His combine works (1954 to early 1960s)
blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture, as their flat surfaces
were augmented with discarded materials and appropriated images. Rauschenberg also
worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance, the last of
which resulted in a number of collaborations with choreographers, including
Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Trisha Brown. Rauschenberg was among the
founding members of the innovative group Experiments in Art and Technology
(E.A.T.) in 1966, and in 1984 he established the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture
Interchange (ROCI) to bring art to communities around the world, saying, “I
feel strong in my beliefs, based on my varied and widely traveled
collaborations, that a one-to-one contact through art contains potent peaceful
powers, and is the most non-elitist way to share exotic and common information,
seducing us into creative mutual understandings for the benefit of all.” Rauschenberg’s
nontraditional art practice and creative energy generated an enduring influence
that impacted generations of artists, as noted by art historian Branden W.
Joseph: “Rauschenberg’s was a position with which artists across the board were
confronted and to which they almost necessarily had to respond. …
Rauschenberg’s work served as a stimulus, an impetus and a challenge.”
Robert Rauschenberg was born in 1925, in Port Arthur, Texas and died on Captiva Island, Florida in 2008. He has had numerous exhibitions worldwide, including “Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1997, traveled to Menil Collection, Contemporary Arts Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, through 1999); “Combines,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005, traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 2007); “Cardboards and Related Pieces,” Menil Collection, Houston (2007); “Traveling ‘70–‘76”, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto (2008, traveled to Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Madre, Naples in 2009); “Gluts,” The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2009, traveled to The Tinguely Museum, Basel, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese in 2010); and “Botanical Vaudeville”, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (2011). Gagosian Gallery first exhibited Robert Rauschenberg’s work in 1986.
Robert Rauschenberg was born in 1925, in Port Arthur, Texas and died on Captiva Island, Florida in 2008. He has had numerous exhibitions worldwide, including “Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1997, traveled to Menil Collection, Contemporary Arts Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, through 1999); “Combines,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005, traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 2007); “Cardboards and Related Pieces,” Menil Collection, Houston (2007); “Traveling ‘70–‘76”, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto (2008, traveled to Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Madre, Naples in 2009); “Gluts,” The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2009, traveled to The Tinguely Museum, Basel, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese in 2010); and “Botanical Vaudeville”, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (2011). Gagosian Gallery first exhibited Robert Rauschenberg’s work in 1986.
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/robert-rauschenberg
