ART-PRESENTATION: Robert Rauschenberg-Salvage

Robert Rauschenberg’s work has always been one of thoughtful inclusion. Working in a wide range of subjects, styles, materials, and techniques, Rauschenberg has been called a forerunner of essentially every postwar movement since Abstract Expressionism. He remained, however, independent of any particular affiliation.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Archive

The exhibition “Robert Rauschenberg: Salvage” at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris presents paintings from the “Salvage series” (1983-85), the artist’s last series on canvas. From the early ‘50s until 2007, Robert Rauschenberg designed for dance. He began designing sets and costumes for Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Trisha Brown and for his own productions. In the ‘60s he was involved in the radical dance-theater experiments at and around Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village and was close to Cunningham-connected experimentalists like Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, and Steve Paxton. In 1977 Rauschenberg, Cunningham, and Cage reconnected as collaborators for the first time in 13 years, when the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York, performed “Travelogue” (1977), for which Rauschenberg contributed the costume and set designs. The “Salvage series” began with “salvaged” drop cloths that the artist used when silkscreening costumes for Trisha Brown Dance Company’s “Set and Reset” (1983). The series consists of canvases painted and silkscreened with Rauschenberg’s photographs and various autobiographical references. Spanning a variety of themes, the series present recurrent motifs (bicycles, cars, farm animals and architectures) that reflect Rauschenberg’s renewed bond to photography in the early ‘80s. The series recalls the topics and compositions of his iconic “Silkscreen Paintings” from the early ‘60s. Although they use commercial printing processes and focus on mass-media imagery, they remain expressionistic, painterly, and multipart in organization. Rauschenberg believed that painting related to “Both art and life. Neither can be made. I try to act in the gap between the two”, as stated in 1959. Following from this belief, he created works that move between these realms, in constant dialogue with the viewers and the surrounding world, as well as with art history. Merging silkscreened photographs with gestural abstraction was a way to incorporate elements from reality into the field of painting.

Info: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7 rue Debelleyme, Paris, Duration: 14/10/16-14/1/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00 (Gallery is closed on 1/11/16), http://ropac.net