Robert Rauschenberg analysis

 

Robert Rauschenberg – Retroactive I (1963)

Robert Rauschenberg who was born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg was born October 22^nd 1925 in Port Arthur, Texas and died at the age of 82 on May 12^th 2008 in Captiva, Florida, United States of heart failure. Rauschenberg’s work is said to have ‘anticipated’ the pop art movement. Rauschenberg has received many notorious awards throughout his life, the main two being ‘The National Medal of Arts’ in 1993 and the ‘Leonardo da Vinci World award of Arts’ in 1995. Rauschenberg was a painter and sculptor well known for his works with mediums such as Photographs, Printmaking and Papermaking. These unorthodox methods were very present throughout ‘The combines’ (works by Rauschenberg) . Rauschenberg made a huge influence with his art style on the movements ‘Neo-Dada’ and ‘Abstract Expressionism’. A few of Rauschenberg’s influences came in the form of Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, John Cage and Jasper Johns. Rauschenberg then influenced very successful artists such as Lichtenstein and Warhol in the Pop art genre.  

This is a collage piece by Rauschenberg Named Retroactive I. This piece was created in 1963. Its creation began before President Kennedy’s assassination. Rauschenberg initially decided to scrap this piece but once news came through of the Presidents assassination Rauschenberg decided to rework the piece as a memorial and tribute to Kennedy’s death. Rauschenberg aspired to create art of the every day. Alongside the use of the recently deceased president there are a lot of things within this piece that relate to the current events of the time. One of the most obvious being the astronaut in the top left corner. With the race to the moon hot on everybody’s lips in the late 60’s this topic deserved insertion. Not to mention Kennedy’s aspirations to achieve this. Rauschenberg said “I was bombarded with TV sets and magazines, by the refuse, by the excess of the world… I thought that if I could paint or make an honest work, it should contain all of these elements, which were and are a reality.”

 

 

 

This piece is and Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 213.4 x 152.4cm. The layout of this piece like many of Rauschenberg’s pieces is very simple and consists of almost separate sections. These sections are very quadrilateral in shape, although irregular. This irregularity combined with the size difference helps us to link the images together in order of importance. The rectangle including John.F.Kennedy is the largest in size and most central. This layout helps us distinguish him as the main element of the canvas. The second largest element is that of an astronaut in space. These both link to the current events of the time. The block containing Kennedy is in blue key and printed on to silk. There is then another box on the left, slightly below the vertical middle containing a selection of fruit.

 Shape is used to great effect within this piece. The anatomy of the piece is very simple and effective because the more intricate organic shapes such as the Kennedy gain prominence within the piece and are then highlighted by the geometrical rectangles. The piece of the work the eye of the viewer is attracted to first is the portrait of Kennedy because of the shape and also because of the vibrant blue, which contrasts with the duller images and highlights it. The central positioning emphasizes this with the use of the rule of thirds. This makes this work as a memorial piece incredibly effective.

 This could link to my theme of memories because of the amount the current events, starring in this piece have gone down in history. The theme of memories can be taken in several directions. In this instance it would be that of impersonal, historical memories. This could be a very interesting direction to take the theme in.