Robert Rauschenberg
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Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008) was one of the most prolific and innovative artists of the post-war period, whose work, ranging across a number of disciplines, has had a profound influence on avant-garde art since the 1950s.
By working in what he called ‘the gap between art and life’, Rauschenberg aimed to bring a new scale and physicality to his paintings. Early on in his career, Rauschenberg produced groups of monochrome paintings, white, followed by black, and red. The White Paintings (1951), canvases painted with white latex house-paint, function as hypersensitive surfaces that register changes in their surroundings. This new emphasis encouraged viewers to attend to phenomena ordinarily ignored when looking at a painting, such as the play of shadows across its surface.
In his Combines, works melding painting and sculpture, Rauschenberg brought elements of popular culture and everyday life into his art through the process of collage, integrating a staggering array of materials into his compositions. His first and most famous combines was titled Monogram, a 1959 work that consisted of a stuffed angora goat, a tire, a police barrier, the heel of a shoe, a tennis ball, and paint. Rauschenberg’s ‘gap’ became the site of more than half a century of endeavours through which he redefined not only what materials could comprise a work of art but what a work of art could be. From the Combines, Rauschenberg branched out into printmaking, silkscreen paintings, performance, works involving technology and many other activities.
Widely illustrated with Rauschenberg's works and photographs of the artist in performance and in his studio, this book also examines Rauschenberg's extensive involvement in the performing arts, tracing his connections to avant-garde dance in America and addressing his own performances and work with the well-known choreographers Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown.
Specifications:- Format: Hardback
- Size: 245 × 172 mm (9 5/8 × 6 3/4 in)
- Pages: 144 pp
- Illustrations: 120 illustrations
- ISBN: 9780714861517
Catherine Craft's interest in Rauschenberg's art emerged from her involvement as a research assistant for an exhibition of his work at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 1992.
An independent scholar specializing in modern and contemporary art, she was a contributing author to the exhibition catalogue Robert Rauschenberg: Haywire – Major Technological Works of the 1960s in 1997, and is also the author of An Audience of Artists: Dada, Neo-Dada, and the Emergence of Abstract Expressionism (2012).
Additionally, she has written articles on newly discovered, unpublished writings by Rauschenberg, published in Art in America and The Burlington Magazine. She is the Adjunct Assistant Curator for Research and Exhibitions at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas.
On the Phaidon Focus series
"Excellent introductions to modern masters series."—The Observer Magazine
"Satisfyingly hardback yet not too hefty. Tastefully simple, encased in a plastic cover to protect them from all those crayons and paints that you're sure to whip out in a frenzy of inspiration after browsing these pages. Each contains a trove of images of artwork and educational focus chapters on themes and techniques."—It's Nice That
"Concise yet spirited introduction... Plenty of colour plates make it brilliantly useful as a reference tool."—The Sunday Telegraph
"Eschewing the heavyweight doorstop format of many art books, these beautiful and compact Phaidon Focus artist monographs are small and slick, and refreshingly affordable... Designed by Julia Hasting, the Zurich-based design director at Phaidon Press, who manages to create a clean, fresh look that - as art book design should - put the artists' work centre stage... Coated in a translucent grey plastic with a clear window, the book's pared back approach continues with clean, black typography on a white background. Never cluttered, but resolutely in-depth, the series manages to condense some of the 20th century's most famous artists' work into small, but by no means diminutive introductions."—DesignWeek.co.uk
"Beautifully designed... The most iconic artists of the modern day... Bring you the essentials in a concise manner."—It's Nice That
"Phaidon are adept at packaging up key artists and movements in contemporary art, ensuring each generation has a familiar and forward-thinking way of immersing itself in visual culture. The newest tranche of introductory monographs is Phaidon Focus. [...] The Focus series is an extended primer, a handsome hardback designed to provide an in-depth overview of an artist's life, plus a more concentrated focus on key works from the artist's career to date."—Wallpaper.com
"Amazing... An essential addition to any art lover's collection."—Grazia