Robert Rauschenberg, Tate Modern, The Eyal Ofer Galleries, until 2nd April 2017

Robert Rauschenberg
Untitled (double Rauschenberg)
ca. 1950
Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil
Monoprint: exposed blueprint paper
209.6 x 92.1 cm
Private collection

This important show on Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), organised in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art in New York, is comprehensive and reveals his ability to challenge and change boundaries whether in painting, sculpture, photography, print-making, technology or stage design and performance.  One easily understands why he was the first American artist to win the Golden Lion for painting at the 1963 Venice Biennale.

Monogram
1955-59
Combine: oil, paper, fabric, printed reproductions, metal, wood, rubber shoe-heel, and tennis ball on two conjoined canvases with oil on taxidermied Angora goat with brass plaque and rubber tire on wood platform mounted on four casters
106.7 x 135.2 x 163.8 cm
Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Purchase with contribution from Moderna Museets Vänner/The Friends of Moderna Museet
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York

As the images here show this is really an exhibition that has to be experienced in order to fully understand Rauschenberg’s huge talent and drive to create with its continuing theme of performance and dance running throughout.

Robert Rauschenberg
Retroactive II
1964
Oil and silk-screen ink print on canvas
213.4 x 152.4 cm
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Partial gift of Stefan T. Edlis and H. Gael Neeson
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York.
Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Robert Rauschenberg
Bed
1955
Combine painting: oil, pencil, toothpaste, and red fingernail polish on pillow, quilt (previously owned by the artist Dorothea Rockburne), and bedsheet mounted on wood supports
191.1 x 80 x 20.3 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift of Leo Castelli in honour of Aldred H. Barr, Jr.
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York
Image: The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, F

www.tate.org