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A 19 Year-old U.S. Marines Hospital Corpsman
Inspired by “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie” |
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A Multimedia Exhibition at the Wilson Museum |
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December 2001-March 2002 |
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American Artist |
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Born Oct. 22, 1925 in Port Arthur, Tex. (also
home town of Janis Ian) [source: Biography Resource Center] |
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Intended to be a pharmacist, but discovered
aptitude for drawing in 1947 [source: PBS American Masters (website)] |
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Introduced to art at the Huntington Library in
1947 while serving as a U.S. Marines hospital corpsman and inspired by
viewing Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” and Lawrence’s “Pinkie.” [source:
Biography Resource Center] |
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With painter Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg rejected
Abstract Expressionism and paved the way for the much less serious Pop Art
and other movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He worked with many materials
outside the usual artistic palette, particularly found materials [source:
Biography Research Center] |
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Rauschenberg enrolled at Black Mountain College,
near Asheville, N.C., less than a year after his visit to the Huntington
Library. He studied with exiled European artist Josef Albers, who helped
Rauschenberg develop his craft. [source: AskArt.com: Biography] |
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Rauschenberg’s fellow students and teachers at
Black Mountain College included such figures as Buckminster Fuller, Merce
Cunningham, John Cage, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell. The Board
of Directors included Albert Einstein and William Carlos Williams. [source:
PBS American Masters website (found via Google; keywords: “Black Mountain
College”)] |
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Rauschenberg was associated with several other
major avant-garde figures including John Cage, Jasper Johns and Merce
Cummingham. [source: AskArt.com] |
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Rauschenberg’s signature work, created in 1954,
was the “Combines” series, pieces that integrated aspects of painting and
sculpture, and often included found objects such as pillows and street
signs. [source: Guggenheim Museum: Robert Rauschenberg (found via Google;
keywords “Rauschenberg” + “Combines”)] |
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His most notorious work, “Bed,” a real quilt
covered by red and white gestures, was created in 1955. [source: Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 28, 1997
(found by link from WWW Pop Art from ArtCyclopedia)] |
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Since 1970, Rauschenberg has worked and lived on
the island of Captiva, Florida [source: Google; keywords “Rauschenberg” +
“studio”] |
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Notes
