Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82
May 14, 2008 By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
Robert Rauschenberg, the irrepressibly prolific American artist who time and again reshaped art in the 20th century, died on Monday night at his home on Captiva Island, Fla. He was 82.
The cause was heart failure, said Arne Glimcher, chairman of PaceWildenstein, the Manhattan gallery that represents Mr. Rauschenberg.
Mr. Rauschenberg’s work gave new meaning to sculpture. “Canyon,” for instance, consisted of a stuffed bald eagle attached to a canvas. “Monogram” was a stuffed goat girdled by a tire atop a painted panel. “Bed” entailed a quilt, sheet and pillow, slathered with paint, as if soaked in blood, framed on the wall. All became icons of postwar modernism.
A painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, onstage performer, set designer and, in later years, even a composer, Mr. Rauschenberg defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style. He pushed, prodded and sometimes reconceived all the mediums in which he worked.
Building on the legacies of Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell and others, he helped obscure the lines between painting and sculpture, painting and photography, photography and printmaking, sculpture and photography, sculpture and dance, sculpture and technology, technology and performance art — not to mention between art and life.
Mr. Rauschenberg was also instrumental in pushing American art onward from Abstract Expressionism, the dominant movement when he emerged, during the early 1950s. He became a transformative link between artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and those who came next, artists identified with Pop, Conceptualism, Happenings, Process Art and other new kinds of art in which he played a signal role.
No American artist, Jasper Johns once said, invented more than Mr. Rauschenberg. Mr. Johns, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Mr. Rauschenberg, without sharing exactly the same point of view, collectively defined this new era of experimentation in American culture.
Read the entire article here: Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82
Highlights From the Archive
Art Review | 'Robert Rauschenberg: Transfer Drawings From the 1960s'
By ROBERTA SMITH
The transfer drawings that Robert Rauschenberg made in the 1960s are seldom seen, especially in large numbers, which makes this exhibition an event of great interest.
March 8, 2007ArtsNews
Leisure/Weekend Desk
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
It is largely, if not exclusively, thanks to Robert Rauschenberg that Americans since the 1950's have come to think that art can suggest that the stuff of life and the stuff of art are ultimately one and the same.
December 23, 2005ArtsReview
Arts and Leisure Desk
By CAROL VOGEL
At 80, Robert Rauschenberg moves with great difficulty, relying on a walker and two assistants, although he still has his bluff good looks and easy smile.
December 18, 2005ArtsNews
Leisure/Weekend Desk
By CAROL VOGEL
The Metropolitan Museum has acquired its first painting by Robert Rauschenberg: ''Winter Pool'' (1959), one of the artist's classic combines.
November 18, 2005ArtsNews
Leisure/Weekend Desk
By CAROL VOGEL
After more than a month of much publicized negotiations, the Museum of Modern Art has finally acquired ''Rebus,'' one of Robert Rauschenberg's seminal paintings.
June 17, 2005ArtsNews
Connecticut Weekly Desk
By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
Although Robert Rauschenberg made his most memorable art in the 1950's and 1960's, he has continued to forge insistent if occasionally off-beat prints.
February 13, 2005New York and RegionReview
Connecticut Weekly Desk
By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
At 78, his right side partly paralyzed after a series of strokes, Robert Rauschenberg, one of the most influential artists of the postwar era, isn't ready to clean his brushes yet.
June 27, 2004New York and RegionNews
Leisure/Weekend Desk
By KEN JOHNSON
''Robert Rauschenberg: Current Scenarios,'' an exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, touches on just three distinct moments in the long career of one of the most influential artists of the last 50 years.
March 19, 2004ArtsReview
Aloft and Close to Nature, Fine-Feathered Birds in Constant Flux
By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO
The details inevitably snag the eye, as they did on Sunday when the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performed the third of eight Events, as they are called, at Dia:Beacon.
May 20, 2008
Rauschenberg Got a Lot From the City and Left a Lot Behind
By ROBERTA SMITH
Here’s what’s on view right now and what will be brought out of storage or rearranged to honor Robert Rauschenberg in the coming weeks.
May 16, 2008
Bob the Builder
By DAVID BYRNE
Robert Rauschenberg’s openness and generosity of vision was contagious and inspired others in their work to see the whole world as a work of art.
May 16, 2008
Paid Notice: Deaths RAUSCHENBERG, ROBERT
RAUSCHENBERG--Robert. The members of The Lotos Club mourn the loss of their distinguished colleague and longtime friend, Robert Rauschenberg, and send condolences to his family.
May 15, 2008
Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
Mr. Rauschenberg, who time and again reshaped art in the 20th century, defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style.
May 14, 2008
Paid Notice: Deaths RAUSCHENBERG, ROBERT
RAUSCHENBERG--Robert. The American Academy of Arts and Letters notes with sorrow the death of this esteemed artist. His loss will be deeply felt. RAUSCHENBERG --Robert. The Trustees and the Staff of the Whitney Museum of American Art note with deep sadness the passing of Robert Rauschenberg. A beloved friend of the Museum, he was a maverick who worked without boundaries, continually rethinking traditional techniques and categories of media. He embraced everyday objects as suitable materials and...
May 14, 2008
Rauschenberg and Dance, Partners for Life
By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Something inherently theatrical about him prompted Robert Rauschenberg to his boldest, freshest conceptions on stage.
May 14, 2008
A Life Made Out of Wood, Metal and Determination
By ANDREA K. SCOTT
“Constructing a Legend,” an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, is the first New York museum show of Louise Nevelson’s work in 27 years.
May 9, 2007
To Be Is to Undo
By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
A Jersey City show samples a Rutgers faculty member’s 50 years in destructivism.
March 4, 2007
Even in the Digital Age, a Strong Case for Printmaking
By MARTHA SCHWENDENER
“Artistic Collaborations: 50 Years of Universal Limited Art Editions” marks the half-century milestone for the workshop and its association with the Museum of Modern Art.
February 12, 2007
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