Lot 39 : Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925)

Robert Rauschenberg - 1925

Auction Location: United States of America - 2005
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Artist or Maker:

Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925)

Title:

Untitled

Description:

Untitled
oil, printed paper collage, wood, fabric, and vinyl on linen
14 x 14 in. (35.5 x 35.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1954-55

Provenance:

Anon. sale; Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 2 May 1973, lot 148
Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner

Notes:

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

The early 1950s were years of precocious innovation for Robert Rauschenberg. Incorporating collage elements and found objects with Abstract Expressionist painting, he breathed new life into this painterly style with his successive White, Black and Red Paintings series. By 1955, these increasingly daring experiments would synthesize to become the influential Combines. Among the most exiquisite examples of this early series is Untitled, 1954-55.

Formally, Kurt Schwitters collages were an important precedent. Schwitters was a compositional master, able to bring an array of disparate materials and sources together, which always form an elegant and synthesized whole and one in which the lessons of Cubism are apparent.

Rauschenberg is far more brutal, and messy, reflecting the cacophany and entropy of the modern urban experience. His collage elements are not neatly cut but violently torn from their original purpose, which combined with the juicy globs and slashes of paint, give Untitled, 1954-55 ts raw expressionist edge. At the same time, Rauschenberg balances the rougher edges with dainty pieces of lace and mesh, candy colors and in this case a reproduction on fabric of an elegant Degas dancer.

The other prominent collage element is the newspaper clipping showing the British statesman, Anthony Eden. A politician of strong principles, Eden first made his mark as a champion of peace during the 1930s, promoted international relations, later serving as Secretary of War and in the Foreign Office under Churchill, who he replaced as Prime Minister in 1955. The newspaper shows Eden's changing face over the years, a general reference to age and the passing of time, a particular apt metaphor for the combines which include media in varying states of distress and decay.

Eden's career was defined by conflict, either by his pursuit of peace, as well as his unwillingness to appease tyrants--echoes of conflict can be found in other collage elements, such as the comic book scrap in the lower left corner that contains an apt dialogue about the pros and cons of "fighting", as well as the snippet of a warning "INTO A TRAP!" (near the center of the left edge). The collage may be inspired by Rauschenberg's thoughts about war and peace, its ambiguities and changing positions, with the Degas dancer a symbol of peace and repose on the one extreme and references to the unfortunate necessity of conflict on the other.

As in all of Rauschenberg's work at this time, the works are not illustrations of a theme or a subject, but are intended to bring up compelling associations, some of which are intentional, which will resonant differently with each viewer. In that sense, he employs the Duchampian idea of art being completed by the viewer who weaves his own narrative. Rauschenberg saw Duchamp's work firsthand in the spring of 1953 at the Sidney Janis exhibition DADA 1916-1923 and uncomprehending critics referred to his earliest works as "Neo-Dada".

Their brilliance was not immediately lauded. Viewed within the downward spiral of contemporary abstract painting, Rauschenberg and his peers were considered passing fads. The New York Times published a scathing review of Rauschenberg's Egan Gallery show (which included both Red Paintings and Combines). "A far outpost of this extremism is to be found in work by Robert Rauschenberg. This exhibition is fun in its own way and there would be no point in taking it too seriously were it not absurdly symptomatic of the demon of novelty" (S. Preston, "Divisions of Today: Novelty to New Realism in Current Shows", New York Times, 19 December 1954, p. 12). Collectors initially agreed with Preston's negative assessment; Rauschenberg sold only two works from the Egan show- for a total of $50.

Although Rauschenberg was not the first artist to combine found objects into art, it had never been done before on such a large scale and with an ambition to encompass an entire world full of subjects and ideas. Dating from 1954-1955, the pinnacle of Rauschenberg's aesthetic achievement, the first series of Combines is a small but seminal body of work that are without exaggeration, some of the most important works of the 20th Century. They include large-scale examples, such as Bed, 1955 (Museum of Modern Art), Rebus, 1955 (Private Collection) and Charlene, 1954 (Stedelijk Museum), as well as a small number of intimate-sized works such as Monk, 1955. What they all share is an explosive visual impact and a provocative (at the time, controversial) arrange of subject matter that are brought together by the artist's unerring feel for composition and eye for poetry in found materials. Fifty years later, the artist and a generation of followers continue to develop and expand upon the ideas inherent Untitled, 1954-1955 and the early series of Combines.