Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) 

American artist, his early artworks linked into the pop art movement, but looking at his work you can see that he’s been influenced by multiple other art movements. He’s got collage from dada, and other aspects of his works remind me of surrealism. I’m looking at a few of his collages for my printmaking, as he’s used photo transfer. 

The images he’s used don’t obviously linked together which leaves the viewer to investigate what the pieces are about, that is if they have a meaning to start with. You’ve got photos of cities, the ocean, people of influence, and also NASA. There is nothing actually suggesting that there could be a dark motive to his work, I don’t know if it’s just because of the colour palette or the way that it’s been put together, but it makes me think of a Government conspiracy. Although there nothing but pictures, It’s just a collections of images that the viewer links together.

His work is quite monochromatic and lively, you can see areas that he’s applied paint on top of the photos with his hands. Looking closely I’m not sure if he’s used mono printing as well, there is areas that look like they’ve been circled using mono printing. There’s arrows dotted around the prints, which could be there to direct your eye. 

You can see that he’s transferred his images in different ways, some of them are done quite lightly and can hardly be seen, where others have been really rubbed on to the paper. 

I like his prints, I think that they’re interesting to look at because they are busy. His work makes the viewer think, he’s putting thoughts in your head without you even being aware of it. Rauschenberg are such varied range of work, which I haven’t fully explored. He is definitely someone I would come back and look at again and again, as I think the more you look the more you see.

 Night Grip, 1966

 Lawn, 1965

Almanac, 1962