1973
Signed and numbered, recto
A collage with embossing and five silkscreens handprinted on India W.C. 72lb. 100% rag paper (Edition of 100)
31 x 23.35
Sold.
“Robert Rauschenberg excels when he produces homogeneity out of heterogeneous elements and a new image by fusing the icons of Schwitters and Albers. Rauschenberg has become deceitfully simple. He delights in exploiting the technical process of reproduction for unexpected effects.
Vertically, his print consists of three sections: the center piece replaces the traditional vase on a table with a brown paper bag, its bottom folded over.
The postcard is a trompe l’oeil collage since it is actually the silkscreen version of the postcard printed on a debossed surface. The strips on the right form a collage of images cut out from magazines to differ in each copy.
Through the interplay of an unpredictable element with pre-established ones, each illustration is turned into a unique image, yet belonging to a series in which equivalence is predetermined. Horizontally the composition forms an irregular five cornered surface that emphatically covers the embossed section of the page. Why should the printed page remain flat?
Rauschenberg has always been keenly aware of the lay-out of his assemblages. His uneven surface effects form the complementary opposite of the leveling off of photographic depth by means of expressionistic brushstrokes, a trade mark of his paintings in the early sixties.
Rauschenberg hastens the pulse of pictorial events. With him art history moves faster, perhaps too fast for the purists who worry about the progress of art. Rauschenberg pursues his vision, once again reborn in restlessness and surprise.”
—Nicolas Calas, 1973
Work by Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)