Arcanum II
Artist
Robert Rauschenberg
(American, 1925–2008)
Date1981
Mediumscreenprint and silk collage
Dimensionssheet: 57.1 x 40 cm (22 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of Sidney and Rosalie Rose
Object number1984.160
Label Text
Often described as the first postmodern artist, Robert Rauschenberg was an innovator whose work in painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and printmaking blurred boundaries between media and processes. His art, positioned in the “gap” between art and life, regularly reconfigured commonplace objects, images, and materials. As a young artist in the 1950-1960s, Rauschenberg both explored and transgressed many of the ideas central to Abstract Expressionism. As art historian, Leo Steinberg noted, “What he invented above all was…a pictorial surface that let the world in again.” In these two examples from a series of 13 prints titled Arcanum (Latin for secret or mystery), Rauschenberg layered colors, textures, and images – current events (sports figures), consumer objects (hardware), patterned textiles – removed from their original contexts in magazines and newspapers and represented in dynamic abstract compositions.
ProvenanceSidney Rose, Worcester, MAOn View
Not on view
