RIP Robert Rauschenberg

I had a dream... I was surrounded by vivid colourful lights. They seemed to be alive and liquid. As I approached them I have noticed there are some shapes under their translucent hues. Like faces from a news-paper my family was looking towards me; not seeing me but pointing out to my laptop and a cot. Though the objects were two-dimensional and seemed not to have any inter-connection the colour play made them important and somehow personal...I've turned around and I was seating at my desk admiring paintings by Robert Rauschenberg.




But my affair with his ideas started earlier... 14 years ago I was seating at the music class and could not comprehend what is so significant about John Cage's 4’33” (1952) – a piece where musicians perform 4.33 minutes of silence.

The whole 'erasing' started when Rauschenberg (ex-U.S.Marines) purchased a drawing by a friend Willem de Koonig (abstract expressionist) for a bottle of whisky and rubbed it all out. The “Erased De Kooning” was a symbolic manifest against seriousness of Abstract Expressionism and sparked a wave of debates that are difficult to erase.


Erased de Kooning Drawing, Robert Rauschenberg

He was redefining art and opening it for the future. Another example is when he was invited to participate in an exhibition at the Galerie Iris Clert in 1961, where artists where to create portraits of the owner Iris Clert. Rauschenberg’s contribution was a telegram sent to the gallery, reading “This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so”.



This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so, Robert Rauschenberg



Artist Biography can be found:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-rauschenberg/introduction/49/

Rauschenberg speaking about "Erased De Kooning":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ