Accident

Artist/Culture Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925–2008)

Printerprinted by Robert Blackburn (American, born 1920)

Date1963

Mediumlithograph on cream Rives BFK wove paper

Dimensionsimage: 97.4 × 69.3 cm (38 3/8 × 27 5/16 in.)
sheet: 104.8 × 75 cm (41 1/4 × 29 1/2 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineNational Endowment for the Arts Museum Purchase Plan

Terms

Object number1977.9

Label TextRauschenberg’s title refers to a mishap that occurred during printing: the lithographic stone which bore the image broke in half. Despite the unintended fracture, he made the print anyway, incorporating a jagged white line showing the crack and the pile of debris it produced. Rauschenberg invented several revolutionary processes to transfer photographs to lithographic prints—broadly referred to as photolithography. Here, Rauschenberg combined his own photographs with discarded newspaper photographs, including an example of a baseball player winding up for an explosive pitch at left. The number on his jersey is a mirror image, exposing the way the printmaking process reproduces images in reverse.ProvenanceRonald Fledman Fine Arts, Inc., New York, NY

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