1925-2008

Robert Rauschenberg initially studied art, music and sculpture at Kansas City Art Institute and later at the Academie Julian, Paris.  In 1948, at Black Mountain College, he was influenced by his teacher, Josef Albers.  Rauschenberg determined to make a break from the Abstract Expressionists and to bridge “the gap between art and life.”  Using soluble transfer of photographic images, he created an oeuvre juxtaposing daily news events with collage and found objects, called Combines.  The heart of his photography is the inverting of relationships of point-counterpoint, absence and presence, and wit and irony, along with elegant expressions of light and darkness in the portraiture.  Permanent collections include The Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and many others worldwide.