Rauschenburg Essay, Research Paper

Robert Rauschenburg is an American artist famous for experimenting with a variety of materials, techniques, media, and styles. His search for new forms of expression throughout his career inspired many artists in the United States and Europe. Rauschenburg was born in Port Arthur, Texas. He first attracted attention in the early 1960’s with all-white and all-black paintings. He then turned to combines, or assemblages, which combined painting with everyday objects. One combine called Bed consisted of a real quilt, sheet and pillow, all splattered with paint.

Starting in the early 1960’s, Rauschenburg combined printmaking techniques, such as lithography, with drawing and painting. He used silk-screen printing to reproduce newspaper and magazine illustration of objects and people. He then arranged and repeated the images in his works. His use of images taken from everyday life formed part of the Pop Art movement during the 1960’s. During the 1960’s he incorporated electronic systems with painting and other media to present images and invite audience participation. For example, in the Revolver series, viewers pressed buttons that rotated disks bearing silk-screen images.

In the 1970’s Rauschenburg again added such materials as cardboard, wood, and fabric to large paintings, notably Rodeo Palace. In addition, he created his Jammer series. The silk and wood works resemble delicately colored sails.

Robert Rauschenburg’s Pilot (part of the Jammer series) is made with a bamboo pole, sewn fabric, and string. There is a blue section a yellow section and a white section of rectangular banners, slightly different sizes. The bamboo pole is sewn to the top of the blue banner, and a string is connected with it and brought across the yellow banner and tied in with the upper left portion of the yellow banner. The blue banner is stretched out at a 45-degree angle while the yellow and white banners are stretched out against the wall. The strongest element is Value you can obviously see the 3 colors right in front of you. It’s a light tone very smooth textured sculpture; not one of Rauschenburg’s most complicated pieces. The piece is asymmetrically balanced.

Robert Rauschenburg’s Publicon/Station 1 is made in wood construction with collage and objects. Publicon’s deal symbolically with “the matter of spirituality – or lack of it – in contemporary culture.” These sculptures are to be opened to reveal an enshrined object. In this piece the doors are opened and reveal a boat oar. The whole thing is done in black and white with shades of gray. The left door has lines vertically and horizontally, making boxes. The lower part is gray background with black lines and the upper part is black boxes with gray lines. The right door has three sections the upper section is black the middle section is dark gray and the lower section is light gray, this is value. The oar is hanging from the top of the box and is a very shiny silver color. There is a ball in the paddling part of the oar that is giving off light. Behind the oar is a tinted window, which darkens the patterns in the background. The background has 5 sections. The upper section is all black. The upper middle section is light gray. The middle section is white with vertical gray lines across it. The lower middle section is dark gray. And the lower section is black. There is also a floor. The floor has a white sheet in the middle of it that is whit with vertical lines. The texture of this piece is smooth with mostly geometric shapes, and it’s symmetrically balanced.

Robert Rauschenburg dose a wide range of artwork, Paintings, use of photos in sculptures and paintings, realistic objects. I got a book from the library and I especially liked the Publicon pieces. They were very creative. His paintings were very odd most of them contained photos, even his sculptures had photo’s then he made them with neon colors, I just like that whole bold style.