"An empty canvas is full."
-Robert Rauschenberg
Famed artist Robert Rauschenberg died this past Monday at his home in Florida. The 82-year-old painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, theatrical performer, set designer and composer was an American icon, celebrated for his versatility as an artist.
Best known as a Pop Artist, Rauschenberg defied categorization and was heavily influential in the fields of Abstract Expressionism, Conceptualism, Abstract Art and American Art in general.
Rauschenberg saw beauty and artistic potential everywhere. Like Andy Warhol, he was a major proponent of the Found Art movement, and is quoted as having once said, “I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly, because they're surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable.”
Along those lines, Rauschenberg was known for picking up trash from the streets of New York City and bringing it home to incorporate it into his artwork. The artist is perhaps best recognized for his "Combines" of the 1950s, mixed media works that combined non-traditional materials with the more traditional artist's media, such as canvas, paint, etc.
Incredibly prolific, Rauschenberg was perhaps one of the most experimental artists of this century. Like a chameleon, he experimented with genres, media, theme and project size, reinventing himself with every project. Apparently, he had a lot to say and express. In the artist's own words:
"I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what
I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities and a
way of making a painting, say, in just one painting or two paintings."
-Robert Rauschenberg
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