AMEN: ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG

From my experiments with a single screen but with multiple almost montage elements still needed more visual interest and were a little flat. I began considering visually strong montagists and I thought of Robert Rauschenberg. I greatly admire his work and he is possibly in my opinion one of the more interesting Pop artists. I wanted to re-examine his work with the end game being an appropriation of his montage techniques, composition and use it as an inspiration for my own work. If it works on a single screen with imagery with in his later works 3D objects incorporated why not something similar on a single screen but also incorporating moving images?

A potted history was found online and this is an abridged version. Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his montages or what he called "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the Combines are a combination of both, but he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993. He became the recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts in 1995 in recognition of his more than 40 years of fruitful artmaking.

It is his earlier work and "Combines I am most interested in and his use of composition, colour, shape and almost use of layers using his silk screen printing to overlap images. Also he uses the the montage editing Eisenstein technique that “an idea that DERIVES from the collision between two shots that are independent of one another”. Rauschenberg however applied this to not film but the collision of images on his works to contrast, collude and create meaning for his audiences.

His two works above Untitled (1963) and Retroactive 1 (1964) are excellent examples of this. They deal with similar themes of space, exploration, adventure, courage and belief of those at the centre of it. They use a collage of elements to create this message. Using the hierarchy of design elements JFK is the strongest element as he was seen as being largely behind the US space race with the USSR by being bigger in one piece and centred in the other. the other elements do fight a little for second spot. In Retroactive 1 (1964) he juxtaposes the image of Kennedy with another photo silkscreen of a parachuting astronaut. The overlapping, and seemingly disparate composition, he also creates a colourful visual commentary on a media-saturated culture struggling to come to grips with the television era.

Left is Portrait of Merce (1984) which borrows a lot from his earlier "Combines" work. Frequently working as the stage manager for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in its first decade, Robert Rauschenberg had a close, collaborative relationship with its founder. Borrowing techniques from his famous "Combines" series, "Portrait of Merce" features collaged fabric, paper, and drawings, juxtaposing artistic and everyday images in a colorful, vibrant composition.

It's use of colour is really bold and as well as Rauschenberg's common use of found photographic silk screen images he includes some line drawing work. Compositionally this is much more assymetrical in terms of balancing the imagery compared to the previously mentioned works. The use of colour is really inspirational and as my work has used either white or black backgrounds really shows what a bold use of colour can achieve. I also like the variety of shapes used in the piece with curves used as well as the squares and rectangles of his earlier works.






















The pieces above are from his is Soviet/American Array series a later piece made in the late 1980's to early 1990's. Soviet/American Array VII is on the left and V is on the right. Rauschenberg sought to address the politics of peace constructively through art and friendship. He carried out his aims primarily in the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), which included research, exhibitions, and making connections with artists, critics, and poets in eleven countries. As part of ROCI, in 1989 Rauschenberg became the first American artist since World War II to be given a solo exhibition in the Soviet Union. For his Moscow show, Rauschenberg created the print series Soviet/American Array. The Russians invited him to exhibit in the Soviet pavilion at the Venice Biennial in 1990, and he became the first artist to represent a country other than his own in that venue.

Both utilised his earlier techniques but now rather than silk screen he was using a Photogravure approach using metal plates and photographic images. Again the themes of overlapping images, multiple photographic images and angular square shapes are repeated from his earlier work. What is different is his more bold approach to colour and even greater use of multiple images. I love the use of colour but the hierarchy of images is a little confused to me. It is hard to decipher which the stronger elements are and i feel that this is intentional and a holistic approach to all of the images to create a more unified meaning all contributing more or less equally to the overall sense of unity between east end west.

The ideas that I will take forward from Rauschenberg and experiment with to develop my one screen multiple elements work are outlined below. I will need to make sure that I take into account the use of moving images and sound in my work though but there is certainly plenty of food for thought here.

• Using colour to differentiate images which I feel will add real visual interest to my work.
• Overlapping of elements rather than separating them. this creates a weird cohesiveness to his work and could do to mine too.
• The use of angular shapes (squares and rectangles) could work well with the assets and images I have currently been using.
• The irregularity of shapes in the "Combines"compositions adds real interest and could allow me to play with the hierarchy of elements more.
• The use of pop culture references is already present in my work through the music videos but can I be more creative with them?