Let The World In

    What has creativity, history, education, the ability to broaden the minds of viewers and is less than fifteen miles away?  The National Gallery of Art.  The National Gallery of Art, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is home to several thousand works of art.

    The National Gallery of Art is well known throughout the world for its prestigious art collections.  It was established in 1937 by the U.S. Congress with the special help of a devoted art collector, Andrew W. Mellon.

    The building itself is not what makes this museum so special; it’s the works of art within its walls.  One current exhibit temporarily in the museum is Let the World in: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg.  It came to the National Gallery of Art on October 28, 2007 and it will be leaving at the end of this month, on March 30.  The exhibit contains about 60 examples of Rauschenberg’s work from all periods of the artist’s career.  

    Rauschenberg began his art career in 1951, and by the 1960s he was popular for his works of art known as “combines,” which had aspects of both paintings and sculptures.  His paintings are not conventional paintings, but rather a more modern, eccentric approach to art.

    The exhibit in the National Gallery of Art is arranged so that when the viewers enter, they view Rauschenberg’s first pieces first and end with his final pieces.  It is designed so that viewers feel like they are walking through the life and career of Rauschenberg.

    One of Rauschenberg’s first pieces, titled Accident, was a little more than the title itself, an accident.  When creating the painting, the lithographic stone broke while printing the painting.  The stone fracture formrd a large crack through the middle of the painting.  Regardless, Rauschenberg still used the damaged painting, and ended up winning an award in an international print competition.

    His next famous series of works was titled Booster and 7 Studies,  which was primarily  autobiographical.  Nearly every aspect of these works told a part of Rauschenberg’s life or Rauschenberg himself.  For example, one work is a life-size piece comprised of several x-rays forming a skeletal image of him.  Another piece is of he and his family in a boat on a lake, and around the picture is a list of all of his achievements throughout his life spiraling outwards.  One could interpret this as him being very family oriented, that is, his family has impacted his life and is important to him.

    Soon after his autobiography series, he commenced a new project, The Stoned Moon Series.  This series was inspired by the launching of Apollo 11 to the moon in 1969.  In these works, for the first time, Rauschenberg consistently used color, and not solely black and white.  All of the pieces within this series were comprised of various pictures, photos, maps, and blueprints from or relating to NASA or outer space.  This series also began Rauschenberg’s interest and fascination with math, science, and technology.

    There are some traits of Rauschenberg that have been consistent throughout his career.  For instance, he has been very interested in several subjects besides science and technology.  Rauschenberg has many pieces that are sport-themed and has included athletic pictures in many of his other works.  In addition to sports, he also uses big news and political headlines from newspapers.  These traits are well-portrayed in the piece Features from Currents, which is comprised entirely of newspaper headlines.  Another feature that Rauschenberg excels at, especially in pieces using newspapers, is a technique called reverse negative.  Reverse negative is simply producing an image backwards, such as when one views an object in a mirror.

    Rauschenberg never felt that he was constrained by anything; he constantly created new ideas that had not been thought of before.  For instance, he felt that art and pictures were not obligated to be printed on just ordinary paper, but had the possibility to be on any type of surface.  He used different kinds of papers, cardboard, plastic, glass, and fabrics such as silk or cloth.  One famous piece on fabric, titled Cat Paws, is a collage of different fabric designs that have text written on them, pictures printed on them, and even objects attached, such as caps from glass bottles for visual effects and appeal.

    Beginning in the 1990s, Rauschenberg focused most of his work on culture type pieces.  The first major piece was Soviet/American Array, which was a collage of photos from the Soviet Union and the U.S. placed together, to compare and contrast the two.  Another cultural piece was L.A. Uncovered, which was a collage of various images, objects, and places that would commonly be seen in Los Angeles.  What makes this piece so good is the method of printing, photogravure.  Photogravure is the use of thin metal plates to print the art.  The use of these plates produces a work of art that is rich and of very high quality and detail.

    Finally, the most recent piece in the exhibit is entitled ‘topher, which is short for Christopher, his son.  The collage is made up of pictures of his son and his late wife, Susan.  Once again, he incorporates his family in his work.  It seems appropriate that he began his career with pieces of he and his family, and he also ended his career with pieces depicting his family.

    Robert Rauschenberg’s ability to innovate and create unique works of art allowed him to enjoy an extremely successful career, and until the end of this month, much of his work will be on display at the NGA.