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Robert
Rauschenberg Robert
Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas on October 22,
1925. After briefly attending the University of Texas to
study pharmacology and serving in the U.S. Navy during World
War II, he decided to study art. He attended Kansas City
Art Institute (1947-1948), and the Academie Julian, Paris
(1947), where he met artist Susan Weil. They later married
and had a son, Christopher. He then attended Black Mountain
College in North Carolina (1948-1949) where he studied with
Joseph Albers. At Black Mountain, Rauschenberg formed friendships
with Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and David Tudor. While
at Black Mountain, he participated in Theatre Piece #1 by
John Cage, which has since become acknowledged as the first
"Happening." He moved to New York in 1949 and
attended the Art Students League where he worked with Morris
Kantor and Vaclav Vytlacil until 1952.
Rauschenberg's
first one-man show was at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951.
Prior to this, he and Susan Weil had experimented with photographic
blueprints. He subsequently produced the "white"
paintings, "black" paintings and "red"
paintings as well as constructions in wood, rock, and rope.
Beginning in 1953, he made his first "combines,"
works that incorporated painting and various objects (a
stuffed goat, a bed, tires). This interplay of activity
in different media is at the core of Rauschenberg's work,
which has been marked throughout his career by a sense of
experiment and play. He spent two years illustrating Dante's
Inferno, now owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York
City.
He has
been involved since the early 1950s in world touring with
theater and dance, designing sets and costumes for Merce
Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Viola Farber, Steve Paxton, Trisha
Brown, and for his own productions. His sustaining involvement
with performance has produced Immerse, the set for the Merce
Cunningham Dance Co.'s MinEvent which debuted at the Joyce
Theater, September 1994. He wrote the score and designed
the costume for Trisha Brown's solo performance If you couldn't
see me, which debuted at the Joyce Theatre, May 1994; plus
was featured in October, 1996 at the BAM with Mikhail Baryshnikov
as You can see us.
In 1962,
Rauschenberg made his first lithograph at Universal Limited
Art Editions (ULAE) in West Islip, New York at the insistence
of the late Tatyana Grosman. At the same time, he incorporated
the silk screen process in his paintings. In the mid-1960s,
he experimented with the use of electronics in his art and
in 1966, with electronics engineer Billy Kluver, co-founded
Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) to promote cooperation
between artists and engineers. His five-part construction,
Oracle, owned by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and
Soundings, owned by Museum Ludwig in Cologne, are outgrowths
of this collaboration.
Subsequent
endeavors at ULAE as well as at Gemini G.E.L., the publisher/workshop
in Los Angeles, resulted in limited edition books and lithographs
done collaboratively with Alain Robbe-Grillet, Russian poet
Andrei Voznesensky and American poet William Burroughs.
He has also done editions with Graphicstudio in Tampa, Florida;
Styria Studio in New York, and Saff Tech Arts in Oxford,
MD; as well as at his own studio Untitled Press, established
in 1971 on Florida's Captiva Island. Projects at these various
studios have taken him to France, India, and China; he has
also created works in Sweden, Israel, Switzerland, Italy,
Japan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The Rauschenberg
Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI), begun in 1984, was
an evolving exhibition of over 200 works by the artist,
based on his visits and collaborations with artist and artisans
throughout the world. The global, peace-seeking odyssey
of art and information included paintings, sculptures, videotapes,
prints and photographs that reflect the artist's respect
for the qualities which mark the differences among the various
cultures of the world. The eight-year tour included exhibitions
in Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, The Peoples Republic of China,
Tibet, Japan, Cuba, Moscow in the former USSR, Berlin, Germany,
Malaysia, and a finale exhibition at the National Gallery
of Art in Washington, DC. in 1991.
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| Lawrence
Voytek & Robert Rauschenberg
at the installation of "Short Stories" |
Rauschenberg
founded and directs Change, Inc., a non-profit organization
that provides emergency funds for artists, now in it's 30th
successful year. The launch at Le Cirque 2000, January 6,
1998 in collaboration with Illycaffe, signifies his latest
effort to help artists in trouble, with "World Cups"
the cups + saucers he designed, with his portion of the
proceeds going entirely to this foundation.
The Robert
Rauschenberg Foundation, started in 1990, also is a non-profit
entity devoted to projects that will increase public awareness
about subjects of vital interest to the artist. They include
medical research, education, the environment, the homeless,
world hunger and global enhancement of the arts. A series
of prints/posters to benefit the people of Tibet, through
the organization "Future Generations," was published
in December, 1996.
After
creating the first Earth Day Poster in 1970, he helped mark
the event's 20th anniversary with a second poster in 1990.
The next year his bus billboards, "Last Turn - Your
Turn" and "Ozone" drew attention to environmental
problems in the modern world in all major U.S. cities. For
the United Nations Conference on Environment (UNCED) he
created an original artwork that was unveiled at the United
Nations in New York, and was used to produce the print "Earth
Summit '92" for the conference in Rio De Janeiro, June
1 - 12.
Another
Robert Rauschenberg artwork, for a print/poster edition
to promote global awareness of the United Nations Conference
on World Population and Development, the "City Summit",
which was set for Cairo in the fall of 1994, was unveiled
at the United Nations in New York on September 20, 1993.
In addition,
Mr. Rauschenberg created the original artwork for the print
to promote "Habitat", the United Nations Conference
on Human Settlements that took place in Istanbul, June,
1996.
For many
years, Rauschenberg has shown in New York at Leo Castelli
and Sonnabend galleries. He has also exhibited at Knoedler,
Gagosian, Pace MacGill, and most recently PaceWildenstein
galleries. In addition, he exhibits at the Texas Gallery
in Houston, the Wetterling Teo Gallery in Singapore and
Stockholm, IL Gabbiano Gallery in Rome, Galleria Lawrence
Rubin in Milan, and the Jamileh Weber Gallery in Zurich.
His work is included in virtually every important international
collection of contemporary art. His latest project is a
commission by the Capuchins in Italy to create an artwork
for the newly designed Renzo Piano church in San Giovanni
Rotondo (Foggia) in honor of Padre Pio.
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