sᴇʟᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴀʀᴛᴡᴏʀᴋ: ʀᴏʙᴇʀᴛ ʀᴀᴜsᴄʜᴇɴʙᴇʀɢ, ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ᴍᴀʀᴋᴇᴛ, 1961

                  57 - 59

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      Melding Art and Life

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art meant to engender particular kind of aesthetic experience

some characterized as spiritual or mystical, took viewer out 

of everyday existence and offer momentary glimpse of 

something beyond our imperfect world

critics did not necessarily think art should be apolitical, 

thought that art could respond to the world by maintaining

some distance from it

emphasis on art as "autonomous sphere"

artists of late 1950s-early 1960s reject call for autonomy

advocate art need to get into every day life to be relevant

some wanted to use quotidian objects/behaviors in work 

to make everyday objects unfamiliar and strange

comment on ideologies that structure our experience and make

them seem natural

others celebrated everyday, elevate banalities and oddities

of daily life in sphere reserved for magnificence

critique of bourgeoisie and to make art more accessible

Andy Warhol refuse to clarify if work glorified or critiqued

features of modern life: consumerism, mass media, celebrity

Pop art began in mid 1950s in England and spread to US

two primary meanings: popular culture - constructed images

and objects in everyday life, often through mass media,

"pop" (literally) - aim to make aesthetically bold works that

would pop out at viewers with recognizable images

strongly contrasted with work of previous era, AbEx, which

involved complex passages of line and colour required eye

to move around to dissect work and its internal relationships

each of 4 works responds to the legacies of Marcel Duchamp's

readymades and AbEx

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         Rauschenberg's

           Early Career

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born Milton Rauschenberg in 1925 in Port Authur, Texas

had simple, small town upbring

briefly studied pharmacology at University of Texas, Austin

drafted into US navy during WWII while serving as neuro-

psychiatric technician in military hospital in San Diego

saw paintings for the first time at Huntington Art Gallery

enrolled at Kansas City Art Institute in 1947

traveled to Paris on GI Bill to study at Academie Julian  in 1948

returned to US in fall 1948, joined student Susan Weil, who he 

met in Paris, to study under German born artist Josef Albers

at Black Mountain College in North Carolina

Rauschenberg and Weil married in 1950, separated in few years

spent time at Black Mountain intermittently through 1952

met avant-garde figures who would become collaborators over

next two decades: John Cage (composer), Merce Cunningham

(choreographer)

between 1949 and 1951, took art classes at Art Students League

in NY, offered first solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery

earliest works include experiments with blueprint paper and

monochromatic white paintings (used in set of Theater Piece No.1)

traveled with artist  Cy Twombly in Europe and North Africa in

1952-1953, exhibited in Rome and Florence with small collages

assemblages, objects he found on his travels

returned to NY in 1953, made important conceptual works:

Automobile Tire Print - 1953

Erased de Kooning Drawing - 1953

by 1954, after he met Jasper Johns, deliberately melding

features of painting and sculpture with found materials,

called them Combines

bed (1955) - sheet, quilt, pillow on tall frame, dripped thick

paint in array of colours like AbEx painters

Monogram (began in 1959), stuffed goat, encircled its middle

with car tire, canvas with paint anf found objects

combines evidence Rauschenberg's play with expectations,

interest in putting everyday objects in new and surprising

arrangements

"there's no reason not to consider the world a giant painting"

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    Black Market: Analysis

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created in 1961, wall mounted square format assemblage covered

in oil, watercolor, pencil, paper, fabric, newspaper, printed paper,

printed reproductions, wood, metal, tin, four metal clipboards on

canvas, one way street sign, arrow pointing to rope, suitcase

inside suitcase: stamps numbered 1-4, inkpad, 4 notebooks,

sharpened pencils, 4 small readymades

contents of suitcase change over time, viewers invited to take 

object and leave one behind

instructions written by Rauschenberg, translated in 10 languages

stamp new object with number, draw in book, sign name

Black Market attempts to bring art and life closer together

each component part remains discrete and heterogeneous,

unchanged from how they appear in the world

viewers empowered to do more than passively contemplate work

title is reference to illegal, underground systems of trade

Rauschenberg "smuggled" common objects into museum,

encourage viewers to do the same with personal effects

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  Interactivity, Participation,

        and Collaboration

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Rauschenberg experimented with door that open to reveal hidden

objects, ask other artists to contribute

Short Circuit (1955), include works by Weil and Johns

employed interaction and collaboration to undermine author

status, extend impact of readymade

Duchamp (1957) - "creative act not performed by artist alone"

spectators bring work in contact with external world by deciphering

and interpreting its inner qualifications

desire to make viewer participants had mixed results

art historian Benjamin H.D. Buchlah published critique of interactive

objects, say the participation was restricted and infantilizing

Black Market ceased to be interactive at a certain point

on view in MoMA (NY, 2017) - surrounded, has do not touch sign

tension between artistic intention and institutional concerns for

preservation heightened as 1950-1960 works enter museums

interactive artworks remain common in contemporary practice

engender conversations about how to navigate divergent concerns