Rauschenberg's travels in the 1970s took him to Italy, France, Jerusalem and India. The series presented here, which were created on, or immediately after these trips, exhibit exceptional simplicity, and brilliance, utilizing new materials and techniques. During this period Rauschenberg created works made of cardboard, fabric and found objects. In all 5 series on display he addresses the classic problems of painting, such as composition, color and texture, as well as those of sculpture, such as weight, balance and the placement of the object in space.
The exhibition unites a selection of works from the series 'Cardboards,'
'Venetians,' 'Early Egyptians,' 'Hoarfrosts' and 'Jammers.' Rauschenberg's
preoccupation with other cultures, as well as experiences from the various journeys
he took are reflected in these pieces, which were created between 1970 and 1976. For
the first time, these work groups in Rauschenberg's œuvre, which have been largely
ignored up to now, are receiving the acknowledgement they deserve.
Rauschenberg's travels in the 1970s took him to Italy, France, Jerusalem and India.
The series presented here, which were created on, or immediately after these trips,
exhibit exceptional simplicity, liveliness and brilliance, utilizing new materials
and techniques. During this period Rauschenberg created works made of cardboard,
fabric and found objects. In all five series he addresses the classic problems of
painting, such as composition, color and texture, as well as those of sculpture,
such as weight, balance and the placement of the object in space, with his typical
inventiveness.
The Cardboards
Rauschenberg used only found bits of cardboard in this series created between 1971
and 1972. His decision to restrict his materials to cardboard and cardboard boxes
coincided with his move to Captiva Island in southern Florida: following a very
successful period in New York, Rauschenberg was looking for new ways to concentrate;
the move took place in 1970 and the artist was looking for a material that he could
get anywhere in the world for his new series: "I still haven't been anyplace where
there weren't cardboard boxes ... even up the Amazon." (Rauschenberg 1991)
Rauschenberg was the first artist to use only cardboard for large format assemblage
paintings, sculptures and installations without treating it as painterly decor or
subjugating it in any way. He discovered the expressive quality of packaging
materials and united the language of formal abstraction with that of real life while
completely preserving the material's character. It was precisely this material,
which is usually discarded, on which he concentrated his attention: "... A desire
built up in me to work in a material of waste and softness. Something yielding with
its only message a collection of lines imprinted like a friendly joke. A silent
discussion of their history exposed by their new shapes. Labored commonly with
happiness. Boxes."
The 'Cardboards' tend to be monochromatic. Rauschenberg continues here in the vein
of the pure black and white paintings of his early years. In this way the traces on
the boxes left by use are strongly accentuated: labels, printed words, imprints from
soles and fingers, as well as various kinds of damage marks. These traces
superimpose one another and provide information about the box's history. As a
universally available material, cardboard boxes also represent the gradual
conformity of the world under the conditions of capitalistic overproduction.
The Venetians
The 'Venetians' were created during 1972 and 1973 in Captiva after a travel to
Venice. For this series, Rauschenberg primarily used mass produced materials and
discarded household objects: fabric, rope, wood, leather, stone, electric cable and
wire, chairs, vases, pillows, an old bathtub, water and scrap metal.
The 'Venetians' are more sculptural than the earlier 'Cardboards' and less abstract.
Characteristic is their reference to Venetian imagery, which, however, is not purely
representational. The objects retain their independence and identity and the
analogies to the city's appearance are primarily formal. The viewer, for example,
mentally transforms a fragmented inner tube into the outline of a gondola and a
piece of wood into a gondolier's oar ("Untitled [Venetian]", 1973).
Rauschenberg was a frequent visitor to and repeated participant in the Venice
Biennale. He was one of the first artists to make the city's distinctive character
the subject of his work: the halt of time in the lagoon, the city's unfailing appeal
despite the gradual decline of its beauty.
In this series Rauschenberg returned to his assemblages, to the juxtaposition of
materials and found objects as they had once characterized his combines. The title
of the work, "Sor Aqua", (1973) quotes the Cantico di Frate Sole by St. Francis of
Assisi, one of the earliest pieces of Italian literature. The four elements form two
sets of siblings: Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Brother Fire and Sister Water. Frate
Sole is the symbol of enlightenment through God. In Rauschenberg's work bent pieces
of metal hang above a filled bathtub reflected in the water like clouds. The
incidental light is also mirrored in the water.
The Early Egyptians
The series 'Early Egyptians' was created in 1973 and 1974. Cardboard is once again
the dominant material, although the way it is treated here is significantly
different: The cardboard boxes are not flattened or cut but are almost always used
as constructive elements in these large-scale works.
Rauschenberg, not without a certain irony, covers the cardboard boxes with glue and
then either rolls them in sand or wraps them in gauze, like mummies. By painting the
backs of the boxes with phosphorescent ink he creates a halation on the wall, as if
the objects were casting artificial shadows there. "I cover them with a special
material, as if it were glue. Then I line them with two or three layers of sand.
This was, when you think that they are boxes, they seem like stones. Then after
having thought that they are stones, you go back to the first impression. They are
not stones! You think again that they are boxes. This ambiguity is what I like. Then
I paint their back surface so that they reflect the color on the walls. Like stones
that have fallen asleep within a rainbow."
Part of the series was executed in Captiva, part in Paris. Rauschenberg's
preoccupation with ancient Egypt was inspired in part by reading material and in
part by visits to the Louvre; Rauschenberg had never been to Egypt.
While the 'Venetians' are lightweight and almost choreographic, the 'Early
Egyptians' suggest weight, even when devoid of it. Rauschenberg creates a monumental
effect, which he undercuts at the same time. In this way the works confront the
viewer with the question of transience and continuity.
The Hoarfrosts
For the 'Hoarfrosts,' executed in 1974 and 1975, Rauschenberg used fabric in place
of traditional canvas supports. The title is a reference to Dante's Inferno, which
Rauschenberg had already illustrated in the 1950s with a series of transfer drawings
("Inferno", 1958/60). Accompanied by the poet Virgil, Dante descends into Hell,
enveloped in mist and frost: The beginning of the 24th canto states: "What time the
hoarfrost copies on the ground / The outward semblance of her sister white."
The technique and content of this series are linked to earlier works. Rauschenberg
noticed that the gauze used to clean the stone slabs in lithography retained traces
of the newsprint. By using a solvent, which allowed images to be transferred onto
fabric, the artist created a series of works on transparent or semi-transparent
fabric; he transferred images from newspapers onto silk, cotton and chiffon. In most
of the works several layers of printed fabric overlap, creating delicate palimpsests
of great depth and elegance. Neutral colors dominate the works at first, although
brighter colors are gradually incorporated.
The 'Hoarfrosts' tell of disintegration and states of suspense, of concealment and
transparency, "presenting the imagery in the ambiguity of freezing into focus or
melting from view." (Rauschenberg)
The Jammers
In 1975 Rauschenberg worked for a month in an ashram in Ahmedabad, India, a center
of textile production. After returning home, he executed a series of works in 1975
and 1976 called the 'Jammers,' which were true bursts of colors. "I never allowed
myself the luxury of those brilliant, beautiful colors until I went to India and saw
people walking around in them or dragging them in the mud. I realized they were not
so artificial."
The fabrics used in these works are rectangular, square and triangular in shape and
their colors are clear and intense. They are hung either loose on the walls or are
attached to bamboo rods like veils in a state of ethereal equilibrium.
The series' name comes from the Windjammer, a sailing vessel, and the titles of the
individual works, such as "Pilot" and "Sextant", emphasize the maritime reference.
The 'Jammers' are reminiscent of sails on ships, of windbreaks on the beach, of
laundry, drying on clotheslines in southern Europe and Asia, of medieval Italian
banners or the flags of a Tibetan monastery. The exotic is connected to everything
that is close and approachable, the holy with the worldly. As with the Venetian
series, the 'Jammers' display the dual qualities of reference and abstraction.
The exhibition is curated by Mirta d'Argenzio. Its international tour has been
organized by the Fundação de Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, and is
co-produced with the Haus der Kunst and the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina
(Madre), Naples.
Sponsored by the Dr. Karl Wamsler Foundation
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1 - Munich