Squish
May 16, 2008
“Rebus” (1955), originally uploaded by k_c_m_c.
I awoke today to find one of my personal artist idols and American master had passed to his reward. Robert Rauschenberg died last night. I think if you asked me if I Had to be another artist, I would pick Rauschenberg, and maybe sometimes I just try on my own. His work was constantly inventive. Even fifty years after the work is still fresh as in the piece below “Talisman” which is in the Des Moines Art Center’s collection. Talisman is the only piece of art that literally has taken my breath away, I turned a corner in the gallery it was hanging in and for a moment I struggled to inhale. My brain was transfixed like my eyes on the 1958 effort of Mr. Rauschenberg and for a moment forgetting to command my lungs.
I remember when Warhol died I wrote Warhol is dead on my studio door at KCAI, the shock of art history actually happening while I was alive was something I needed to impress on my fellow students and myself. Rauschenberg’s passing is a reminder of that same thought, which is that art history is happening as we speak, eat and make art.
The poetry that Rauschenberg commanded with materials, marks and media has influenced art and design in immeasurable ways. His post Dada conceptual constructs are the building blocks of the performance / installation of today. Rauschenberg’s work was free of strategy and cynicism, he was not trying to out-smart you or out-cool you. His focus was on the object and its mission or trans-mission.
I always hoped I would have had the chance to meet him & give him a hug and a kiss, (I am told he was affectionate) and thank him for giving so much.
text revised @ 4:45 pm
linkage below
