PRESENTATION: Robert Rauschenberg-Arcanums

Robert Rauschenberg worked in a wide range of mediums including painting, sculpture, prints, photography, and performance, over the span of six decades. He emerged on the American art scene at the time that Abstract Expressionism was dominant, and through the course of his practice he challenged the gestural abstract painting and the model of the heroic, self-expressive artist championed by that movement.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gladstone Gallery Archive

Derived from the Latin word for secret, “arcanus”, the title of these artworks and the exhibition “Arcanums” underscores Robert Rauschenberg’s ongoing fascination with the esoteric aspects of both the spiritual and physical worlds. The series comprises thirteen drawings full of references to the mysteries of the physical and spiritual world. In the original drawings, which were editioned by Styria Studio in 1981, colorful and complex layers include images depicting religious iconography, natural phenomena, popular culture, symbolic diagrams, and architectural monuments. These images overlap and bleed through veils of patterned fabrics. The drawings explore the fragmented and layered nature of thought and communication, demonstrating Rauschenberg’s instinctual ability to transpose the human experience into his artistic practice. Since the beginning of the artist’s career, Rauschenberg’s work has been rooted in experimentation and pushed boundaries across a myriad of media. Resisting conventional modalities and avoiding association with a singular historical movement or style, he was guided by an ideology that intersected art and life. In a 1989 interview, he was asked “How would you describe the importance of the metaphysical, the transcendental content of art?” to which he replied, “I don’t think you can separate them. The object of art is to not separate those things. You don’t make an icon for either of them. You just indulge in the process of putting them together.”1 Rauschenberg’s practice was centered around looking beyond the sole possibilities apparent in real-world objects, deftly bringing together an expanse of ideas that contend with the interplay of mysticism and technological innovation within his work. In the late 1960s, after an astrologer advised him to “head for the water and the sun,” Rauschenberg frequented trips to Captiva, Florida, a remote island off the coast where he would eventually relocate his residence and studio from New York in 1970. Captiva became a major source of inspiration for the artist, who continued to integrate found objects and readymade materials into his later works. Fabric was a key material in Rauschenberg’s Arcanum series. While Rauschenberg had used fabric in his earlier works, his new drawings were invigorated by the richly colored cloth that inspired him during his visit to a textile center in Ahmedabad, India in 1975. Expanding the potential of recognizable imagery across artistic mediums and forms, Rauschenberg transferred images depicting religious iconography, natural phenomena, popular culture, symbolic diagrams, and architectural monuments onto his drawings. This imagery was incorporated into his drawings using a solvent transfer technique, where a printed source is treated with a solvent, placed face down, and then the image is transferred through pressing. The resulting images are low-resolution and fragmented, and Rauschenberg further obscured the legibility of the initial image by adding grids and meshes of fabric, and layers of pencil, gouache, and watercolor. This process, both mechanical and spiritual, reflects the artist’s desire to connect with the incomprehensible and communicate the sublime. Rauschenberg’s work examines the complexities of human perception and understanding, often juxtaposing handmade and machine-made imagery and techniques. In the Arcanum drawings, the artist’s compositions attempt to define a symbiotic relationship between art and technology using imagery drawn from mass media. The source imagery communicates more than the fragments transposed on the works, reflecting Rauschenberg’s emphasis on the process of connecting objects and ideas—glimpses of technological innovation contrast with decorative illustrations of architecture and old master paintings within his abundant visual fields. A sense of relevance permeates these works as Rauschenberg integrates images into his drawings of contemporary advancements and digital tools from scientific magazines and newspapers. The “Arcanum” series manifests Rauschenberg’s enduring dedication to capturing the elusive relationship between images and ideas in his work, underscoring his relentless pursuit of understanding and innovation throughout his career.

Photo: Robert Rauschenberg, Arcanum IX, 1979, Solvent transfer, fabric, and printed reproductions on paper, 22 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (57.8 x 40 cm), © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Courtesy Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Gladstone Gallery

Info: Gladstone Gallery, Gladstone 64, 130 East 64th Street, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 21/9-2/11/2024, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, www.gladstonegallery.com/