Even including taxidermy and a personal blanket - Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008

Even including taxidermy and a personal blanket
Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)
a special installation exhibited in 'MoMA', New York

Dr. Zvika Israel

I feel really sorry for people who think that items, such as soaps and mirrors or bottles of Coca Cola, are ugly, because they're surrounded by these items all day and it must make them miserable (Robert Rauschenberg).

Rauschenberg, one of the early heralds of 'Pop Art', passed away on 12th May, 2008 at the age 82, in his home on Captiva Island in Florida. The New York 'MoMA' set up a memorial for him, in the form of a special exhibition representing his work, from its beginnings in the 1960s. Rauschenberg worked alongside Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenberg, Richard Hamilton and others who reacted to the American consumer culture and economic prosperity. Their works were characterized by strong coloring, mixed materials and 'ready-made' combinations, a very different approach to that which had been accepted until then. At the end of the 1950s, the Pop Art movement already influenced different areas of art: visual art, cinema and music. The core of the movement was in the USA and England and it became known for its critical approach to mass production technology and the communication media, which generated 'mass culture'. This socio-cultural consequence of technology, mechanization and advertising, had an immense influence on the mass public, and to this day dictates the quality and style of their lives. This was reflected in the products of the Pop Art artists including Rauschenberg.

Robert Rauschenberg, one of the founders of the Pop Art movement and genre in art, was designated by the 'New York Times' as 'A giant of American art', who together with a group of creative artists: the painter Jasper Johns, the musician and composer John Cage, the choreographer Merce Cunningham, defined a new era of art. They relied on a philosophy that supported an incessant dialog between art and life, while blurring the borders between them. These concepts were supported in their work by the use of everyday items such as: stuffed animals, street signs, chairs, tires, pieces of clothing etc. As a creative artist Rauschenberg chose images that appeared in the mass communications media and using his own unique integrative technique, known as 'Combinens', included them within his works.

According to this method, use was made of materials and characteristics from different areas of art, such as: painting, sculpture, printing, journals and newspaper cuttings, which were combined to form a new creative product, bearing a critical statement. Outstanding examples of this style of work combined the use of a stuffed goat (used in the past as a source of food and clothing) or the personal blanket (which would formerly have been woven, patch by patch in small craft-shops) of the artist. There is some sort of encounter with aspects and components of identity, as metaphors contrasting with contemporary American social reality at the time.

Rauschenberg's style was close to 'abstract expressionism', he extended it and yet on the other hand contradicted it. This he did, by using bold brush strokes (to the extent that at the bottom of his work the paints dripped freely) and huge areas of color, but combined with photographs from journals and three dimensional 'ready-mix' (chosen randomly for his Combinens work) as an integral part of the creative product, thus strikingly distancing his work from 'abstract expressionism'.

Rauschenberg's work had multiple foci, mixing meaningful symbols from the world of images borrowed from reality (not from his internal reality, as characterized by the abstract artist). Rauschenberg included realistic elements alongside abstract artistic components, inspired by the musical works of the American composer John Cage, who introduced random notes from outside (such as: the screech of a car or a ringing telephone) within selected composed notes. Similarly, Rauschenberg included components of reality with pure artistic elements in his work. This thinking was typical of many other Pop Art creators, who developed the dialog between art and life. Their view was that any motive from daily life, even the most marginal might be included as a component element in the Pop Art creation. Often when the image was repeated several times, the image became a valid symbol, helping the audience to observe the external and externalized world in which they live.

'Duplication' became an outstanding common theme of Pop Artists who themselves turned to mass production in their printing and replication methods, thus creating a sort of mechanism in their artistic work. Like a production line of a factory, this creative process testified to mass production, and like a mirror provided a critical reflection on the serial manufacture of modern technological society.

In his article 'A Work of Art in the era of its Technical Reproduction' Walter Benjamin (1937) argued that the most perfect reproduction lacks the 'here and now' of a work of art, its one-time nature. The concept that Pop Artists chose to imprint with their protesting approach, was to turn the artistic product into something equal for everyone similar to a consumer product. They believed in the concept of reproduction and that it did not harm the substance of the work of art. According to Benjamin the illustrated replica, as retained 'in waiting' by a newspaper, was clearly distinguished from an artistic work. While the picture holds both a one-time quality and an affinity to tradition, the copy has a quality of temporariness and may become outdated and/or appear over and over again. So the thinking of Pop Art advances the mutual processes of adaptation of the reality to the masses and their adaptation to it, as processes intended to construct new boundaries for the observation and conception of modern reality.

In his work 'Gloria' (1956, oil and collage on paper), that typifies his creative work, a monochrome newspaper cutting, bearing the picture of a New York society woman who had been married several times, is stuck several times on the colorful work, thus hinting at the motive of repetitive reproduction and the ills of American society.

Nevertheless, as part of his incessant creativity, Rauschenberg searched for new ways of expression and in an interview with him in 2000, he claimed:
I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it and then I stop. At a time that I am bored or understand – I use these words interchangeably - another appetite has formed. A lot of people try to think up new ideas. I'm not one. I’d rather accept the irresistible possibilities of what I can't ignore.

Rauschenberg never belonged to a group; nevertheless, he is considered one of the most influential creators in the second half of the 20th century in the USA and the Western world.