LONDON, Nov 14 — Tate Modern in London is set to open a major exhibition of the work of US artist Robert Rauschenberg on December 1. The show — which will, notably, feature his iconic work “Monogram” — is to be the first posthumous retrospective of the artist, who died in 2008.
Born in 1925, Robert Rauschenberg innovated in fields including painting, sculpture, photography, technology, stage design, performance and print-making through the second half of the 20th century.
The new exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, will represent chapters of the artist’s six-decade career through major international loans that rarely travel, according to the Tate Modern.
Highlights include a selection of the artist’s painting/sculpture hybrids called Combines, including “Bed” (1955) and the iconic “Monogram” (1955-59), which features a stuffed goat at its centre and is travelling to the UK for the first time in more than 50 years.
Rauschenberg is said to have bought the goat at a used furniture store for 15 dollars and later added a rubber tire to the work so that the two “lived happily ever artist,” according to the artist. The goat — and the fragile work it occupies — has recently undergone conservation and is on loan from the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
“Bed” (1955), travelling from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, was allegedly assembled from the artist’s own pillow and a quilt he was given as a gift from fellow artist Dorothea Rockburne.
Also featured in the exhibition will be the silkscreen paintings that signalled Rauschenberg’s commitment to political activism, including “Retroactive II”, which was done in 1964 and portrayed the recently assassinated JFK.
The retrospective will document the artist’s early experiments at Black Mountain College and his work in the 1970s, which he spent travelling extensively. Also of note will be his epic project “Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Exchange,” a travelling exhibition that took place over 1984-1991 and included trips to Chile, China, Cuba and Tibet.
Late inkjet paintings will spotlight the artist’s continuing innovation into digital technology, while performance and dance will be a central feature of the show.
“Robert Rauschenberg” runs at the Tate Modern from December 1, 2016 through April 2, 2017. It will then travel to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2017. — AFP-Relaxnews
