ART-PRESENTATION: Robert Rauschenberg, Borealis 1988-92
Robert Rauschenberg was one of the most influential artists of his time and still is. His approach to art was eclectic, consisting of multiple images, materials and photographs transferred or sculpted to the canvas with a large variety of different techniques. Rauschenberg wanted to reflect the world around him in his art and creative activities. Many of his latest works have resulted from lifelong exploration of image-transfer methods, as well as his open-minded attitude towards the world around him.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Archive
An exhibition dedicated to Robert Rauschenberg’s “Borealis” series is on presentation at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg. Made between 1988 and 1992 in Captiva, Florida, the series are considered to be one of Robert Rauschenberg’s most experimental and innovative series. In these works, Rauschenberg characteristically silk-screened photographs taken during his ROCI tour (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, 1984–91) onto brass, copper and bronze plates, adding tarnishing agents which would produce chemical reactions (which Rauschenberg called “corrosions”) ”), sometimes with the addition of acrylic paint. By painting or silkscreening with a tarnish-resistant medium before applying the tarnishing agent, the artist created coloristic variations by contrasting the tarnished and untarnished metal. Tarnishing agents, such as acetic acid and ammonium salts, are brushed onto brass, copper, or bronze surfaces, resulting in a muted range of colors: green, brown, or black, depending on the type of metal support. With their subtly reflective surfaces, the Borealis paintings change according to each viewpoint, alluding to the ever-changing landscape of modernity. Between 1984 and 1991 Robert Rauschenberg embarked on the ROCI project, travelling the world and exhibiting in eleven countries where artistic experimentation had been suppressed, including Chile, China and Cuba. During these trips, the artist had numerous encounters and made discoveries that allowed him to develop a new body of work, which brought together characteristic elements of his practice: photography, silkscreening, painting and experimental techniques. After his trip to Chile, where he visited a copper mine and a foundry, Rauschenberg started to experiment with copper. Fascinated by this reflective material, he created what he called “corrosions”. This process produces an effect that is both murky and lustrous so that, as he explained, “the metal carries the image instead of the opposite way around, where the paint is the image on the surface”. The title of the series alludes to the aurora borealis (the ‘Northern lights’), which appears in the Northern Hemisphere as a diffuse glow of vivid color in the night sky. Rauschenberg had first seen this phenomenon while travelling in Sweden and later, referring to his Borealis series. While in his earlier series the artist would source images from magazines and newspapers, for the “Borealis” he used his own photographs, taken during the ROCI project: from Berlin Wall graffiti, to road signs in New York, storefronts in Japan, the clock at the Gare d’Orsay in Paris or farm animals, to name a few. In some of the works the imagery is dense, in others it is concentrated in specific areas, leaving part of the material bare and overlaid with Rauschenberg’s gestural brushwork. Each composition shows incidental gestures, including wipes and drips, streaks, washes and spots.
Info: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Mirabellplatz 2, Salzburg, Duration: 12/4-31/5/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 10:00-14:00, https://ropac.net
