An icon of American modern art, Robert Rauschenberg died of heart failure yesterday at the age of 82. His passing was announced today by Jennifer Joy, his representative at PaceWildenstein gallery in New York.
His use of odd and everyday articles earned him regard as a pioneer in the Pop Art movement which gained a great deal of fame beginning in the 1950s. Rauschenberg's works didn't borrow and lift from popular culture as Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can or Marilyn Monroe works and Roy Lichtenstein comic book panel works did, but his pieces or "combines" worked more as a combination of three-dimensional objects and paint to blur the lines between the ideas of art and objects in modern life.
He created one of his most famous works, "Bed," after once waking up with the urge to paint but without the money to afford canvas. Thus, Rauschenberg stripped his bed and utilised the quilt off his bed as a painting surface and went at it with paint, toothpaste and fingernail polish. I think that work such as "Bed" speaks of an artist's abundance of desire to simply create! It's amazing!
Rauschenberg was also a sculptor and a choreographer in his life. Another work many audiophiles would also know is his cover for the Talking Heads album, Speaking in Tongues.
He led a fascinating life and is survived by an amazing body of work. Click here to learn more about his life and his work.
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