Robert Rauschenberg

Born October 22 1925 in Texas and died May 12 2008 of heart failure in Florida. Rauschenberg studied at Kansas City art institute and at Académie Julian in Paris, France; this is where he met the painter Susan Weil. In 1948 Weil and Rauschenberg decided to attend black mountain college in North Carolina. Rauschenberg married Susan Weil in 1950 and they had their only child on July 16 1951, they later divorced in 1953.

Rauschenberg has his first one man show in 1951 at Betty Parsons Gallery, and his second in 1954 in Charles Egan gallery.  In 1964 he was the first American artist to win the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale.

Rauschenberg used a lot of trash and already used materials to create his pieces; he was quoted saying that he wanted to work “in the gap between art and life” meaning that he wanted to question the distinction between everyday objects and art objects. Also Rauschenberg liked to transfer images onto different material frequently during his career.

Robert Rauschenberg, buffalo II, (1964), mixed media http://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556695249254/http://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556695249254/

In this piece there is a picture of JFK and also a picture of his hand in a blue tint. I think the blue tint of JFK`s hand pointing forward could represent that some of the things he proposed e.g. Medicare were put in to action that year, and the blue tin could be representing that he is dead. There is also a key in black and white which could be there as a new president was elected that year and that could represent the keys to the white house (metaphorically) being passed over as they are next to JFK. There is also an eagle which could represent American pride as the country was attacking North Vietnam in response to Vietnam attacking a U.S. Destroyer. There is also lots of colours mixed together around the Blue picture of JFK`s has which could represent the mystery and haze that surrounded the assassination of him. There is also a yellow smudge at the top left of the page with s red dot in the middle. There is a red oblong at the bottom of the picture with a red arrow coming out the top and on the side three lines coming from the military chopper and at the bottom left there is a bit of red and yellow brush marks, I think this represents the war in Vietnam as the chopper looks like a transport chopper dropping troops off in the area (red box) and flying away and the red and yellow marks the blood and death of the soldiers in Vietnam.

The formal elements feature throughout the piece. Shape is used as there are a lot of squares overlapping. Line is also used as the lines almost split the page into 3 sections vertically. There are a lot of primary colours throughout the piece predominantly blue and a bit of red and yellow that are also mixed to also create an orange.

The composition of the piece works as the viewer is lead through the piece, in a kind of backwards s across it. As the brighter colours attract the eye first and the darker colours last. There is a harmony with the colours used as the blues are mainly in the bottom left and the oranges in the top right area although there are elements of both in each area.

I think this piece was created as a reminder/benchmark of the past year and Rauschenberg`s view of the main events. Rauschenberg’s work can related to my theme as he uses lots of recycled materials which are broken, used and worn.  

This piece could relate to my theme as it is composed of recycled materials that are used and faded, also it is an old piece that relates to what is now faded history/memories. This piece relates to my resent collage work as i have also been using recycled materials that have already been use and that have meaning and age to them.