Book Description

Iconoclastic, generous, inventive, impulsive, sensitive, gregarious, prodigious: these are just some of the words to describe Robert Rauschenberg and the art he has been making now for 50 years. From the age of 38, when he received the grand prize at the Venice Biennale in 1964, Rauschenberg has been a pivotal figure in the art of our time. This revised edition of the classic biography of the artist, first published in 1994, adds 36 new pages to cover the significant moments in the last ten years of his career, including his monumental career retrospective at the Guggenheim in 1997.

With 230 illustrations, 112 in full color, Rauschenberg: Art and Life is a richly impressive and highly readable portrait of the artist. Showing the astonishing dexterity and range of Rauschenberg's art even as an emerging artist; the creation of his now famous combines; his eagerness to bridge art and technology; and the establishment of ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange), this is a book, as one reviewer put it, "to grab from a burning house." AUTHOR BIO: Mary Lynn Kotz is the author of the best-selling Upstairs at the White House, Marvella, and A Passion for Equality (with Nick Kotz). She is a contributing editor to ARTnews and has written for many major magazines in her 20-year career as a journalist. She lives in Washington, D.C. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Wonderful, though more text than I wanted
I was very pleased by the large number of high-quality reproductions. Still, as far as I'm concerned there should have been *more*. The book contains (a rough count) about 280 pages containing text or mostly text, out of about 630 total pages. However, I'm very happy with the book.

Best Rauschenberg book ever!
Best book, I have ever bought

Excellent well presented book
The problem with art books is that they go out of print too quickly. This is a beautifully presented book on Rauschenberg that was released with the big retrospective at the Guggenheim in 97/98. Barnes and Noble still had copies avaiable as of Sept. 99, so check there -- they were even discounted!

This is a very comprehensive overview of Rauschenberg's work
For the fan and the collector, this book is an excellent reference guide that offers extensive illustrations of the works themselves, as well as documentary photos of the artist at work and play. A chronology, exhibition and performance histories are also included. I was also very interested in the information regarding Rauschenberg's work processes and collaborations with other artists. This is a fine addition to any art library.

This book was offered in paperback during a recent exhibition at the San Francisco MOMA, so if you can find the hard cover you should buy it.

Rauschenberg, the book
The book is beautiful, if very heavy. The fault lies not with the catalog but with the show itself. THERE'S TOO MUCH STUFF and not all of it is worth looking at. The book will prove to be an invaluable companion to the catalog from the National Gallery of Art's 1976 retrospective. But it (and the show) sure could have used some editing. ... Read more

Book Description

Robert Rauschenberg, one of the most prolific and influential artists of the postwar period, has created an astonishing variety of works during a career spanning more than fifty years. To illuminate the meaning of Rauschenberg's art and the reasons behind his artistic choices, Robert Mattison in this book focuses closely on a small selection of the artist's projects. Mattison offers an interpretation of Rauschenberg's output that is both original and uniquely insightful, based on extensive research and first-hand observation of the artist at work in his studio.Like Rauschenberg's own work, the book ranges across a variety of disciplines. Mattison relates the artist's output to the visual arts, politics, technology, dance, urban theory, and other intriguing contemporary issues. The book examines Rauschenberg's working process, the effect of his dyslexia on his art, his seminal Combine paintings of the 1950s, fascination with the "space race," and collaboration with well-known choreographer Trisha Brown. A final chapter explores the art Rauschenberg exhibited in Chile during the dangerous and repressive rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

patchwork collage of the mind
Reflections of an artist mind unleashed, Rauschenberg's images of political and social issues are portayed through scattered images and expressive paint strokes. His use of mixed media portrays an intensity between his paintings and the connection expressed in his life and his surroundings. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

BEST Book on Rauschenberg, Johns, et al.
Incredibly informative. Thomkins provides excrutiating detail in the most interesting way. Never a dull moment. If you have any interest in Rauschenberg, Johns, Happenings, etc., then you should read this book. There is no way that you will walk away without learning MANY new things.

A fascinating insider's view of the New York art world
Lucky, lucky, lucky. That's how I felt after a friend lent me a copy of this out-of-print book. Here was a first hand chronicle of the New York art scene from the 50s to the 70s. Although Rauschenberg was the main artist featured, interesting vignettes about other artists were included, from Jasper Johns to Marcel Duchamp, from De Kooning to Andy Warhol. Did you know that it was Rauschenberg who influenced Jasper Johns to quit his bookstore job and go full-time into art? Rauschenberg's career is fascinating itself. Read and enjoy. ... Read more

Book Description

Robert Rauschenberg is one of the most important visual artists of the second half of the twentieth century. In Random Order, Branden Joseph examines Rauschenberg's work in the context of the American neo-avant-garde. One of the foundations of his study is Rauschenberg's professional relationship with experimental composer John Cage. From the moment of their encounter at Black Mountain College in 1952, Joseph argues, Rauschenberg and Cage initiated a new avant-garde project, one that approached the idea of difference not in terms of negation but as a positive force. Claiming that Rauschenberg's work cannot be understood solely from the standpoint of the Frankfurt School--whose theories have dominated discussions of avant-garde and neo-avant-garde aesthetics--Joseph turns to the theoretical positions of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida. Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde was not a simple repetition of earlier avant-garde movements, Joseph shows, but a series of practices that opposed the rise of postwar spectacle, commodification, and mass conformity.

Beginning with the White Paintings, Joseph examines Rauschenberg?s artistic development from 1951 to 1971. He looks at the black paintings, Red Paintings, Elemental Paintings and Elemental Sculptures, Combines and Combine paintings, transfer drawings and silkscreens, performances, and explorations in art and technology. Joseph?s study not only offers new interpretations of Rauschenberg?s work, but also deepens our understanding of the entire neo-avant-garde project. ... Read more

Book Description

One of America’s most important artists, Robert Rauschenberg consistently fuses painting, found art, photography and printing in his works.Now available in paperback, this stunning book brings together sixty of Rauschenberg’s most exciting posters.

Arranged thematically and chronologically, the posters display the full range of Rauschenberg’s stylistic development from the 1960s to the 1990s.Since 1963 the artist has been designing posters to advertise his own exhibitions, music and dance performances, and to address sociopolitical issues.This breathtaking volume features full page, color reproductions that allow the viewer to truly appreciate the complexity, ambiguity, and incredible scope of Rauschenberg’s oeuvre. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

The majority of works shown in full color.
I agree that this small book is engaging and a fun read. Even more, I thought the images of Rauschenberg's work were very well chosen and by far the majority in color. I was shocked that Mary Lynn Kotz chose to show Rauschenberg's "Winter Pool" in black and white (tragedy!)in her book, "Rauschenberg/Art And Life"...it is in full color in this gem. I would buy this book first.

A gem of a book
This is not a typical lecture. It is Leo Steinberg at his best--witty, learned, insightful--giving us a brief survey of Robert Rauschenburg's art from the early 1950s until the present day. The book is beautifully designed and printed, and makes a great gift for anyone interested in the New York art scene. A lot of book for the buck. ... Read more

Book Description

From the moment art historian Leo Steinberg championed his work in opposition to Clement Greenberg?s rigid formalism, Robert Rauschenberg has played a pivotal role in the development and understanding of postmodern art. Challenging nearly all the prevailing assumptions about the visual arts of his time, he pioneered the postwar revival of collage, photography, silkscreen, technology, and performance.

This book focuses on Rauschenberg?s work during the critical period of the 1950s and 1960s. It opens with a newly prefaced version of Leo Steinberg?s "Reflections on the State of Criticism," the first published version of his famous 1972 essay, "Other Criteria," which remains the single most important text on Rauschenberg. Rosalind Krauss?s "Rauschenberg and the Materialized Image" builds on Steinberg?s essay, arguing that Rauschenberg?s work represents a decisive shift in contemporary art. Douglas Crimp?s "On the Museum?s Ruins" examines Rauschenberg?s silkscreens in the context of the modern museum. Helen Molesworth?s "Before Bed" uses psychoanalytic and economic structures to examine the artist?s Black Paintings of the early 1950s. A second essay by Krauss, "Perpetual Inventory," revisits both her and Steinberg?s articles of nearly twenty-five years earlier. Finally, Branden Joseph?s "A Duplication Containing Duplications" views Rauschenberg?s silkscreens in relation to the artist?s interests in technology, particularly television. ... Read more

Book Description

This book presents a comparative study of two pairs of collaborative artists who worked closely with one another. The first pair, Cézanne and Pissarro, contributed to the emergence of modern art. The second pair, Johns and Rauschenberg, contributed to the demise of modern art. In each case, the two artists entered into a rich and challenging artistic exchange and reaped enormous benefits from this interaction. Joachim Pissarro's comparative study suggests that these interactive dialogues were of great significance for each artist. Taking a cue from the eighteenth-century German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, he suggests that the individual is the result of reciprocal encounter. Paradoxically, the modernist tradition has largely presented each of these four artists in isolation. This book thus offers a critique of modernism as essentially monological and as a tradition that resists thinking about art in plural terms. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I'd Grab It While Running From A Burning House!
I didn't originally like Rauschenberg's art from the 1960s, which I had seen locally. So I was amazed to chance upon a show of his I loved at the National Gallery of Art in the early 1990s. I spent hour upon hour looking at this show. Each was a masterpiece of modern art using multiple devices and techniques. It was dizzying. Then, I HAD to have this book so I could study this marvelous artist and take in the whole of his career. It's hard for me to now imagine how anyone could dislike his work as he seemingly does it all in art. He can incorporate the real with the abstract seamlessly. He flows from one medium to another, seemingly without effort, incorporating them all together into one "painting" (I don't know what else to call them but they are unlike anyone else's paintings). I like his art best from the 1980s and 1990s but he was always pushing the envelope. Published by Abrams, the book itself is perfection and displays the art beautifully. If you want to open yourself to modern art and mixed media, this is the artist for you to embrace. This book is your starting point.

Discover Rauschenberg
This is a fantastic book on the work and life of Robert Rauschenberg! I have seldom read a book with such relish! I was exposed to Rauschenberg in a new way. I was amazed at the people and places he was connected to and the media he catapulted into art history. If you are seeking inspiration in your own work or simply a fabulous biography, try this one. It may be the one that changes how you look at the world. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

excellent art criticism for the neophyte
this book is a surprisingly accessible work on the lives of five important artists (duchamp, cage, tinguely, rauschenberg, and cunningham) of the avant-garde, each working from a different discipline. tomkins has gathered exhaustive biographical data on each artist and the reader gets the impression that he is good friends with each of them. his critical stance on the artwork discussed is respectful, and he refrains from using a lot of artworld jargon. a very entertaining read. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on December 28, 1998. The length of the article is 721 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Todo Rauschenberg.(Robert Rauschenberg; pintura; Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao, Espaa)(TT: All Rauschenberg.)(TA: Robert Rauschenberg; painting; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain)
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 28, 1998
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 74(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Print, published by RC Publications, Inc. on March 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1297 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Rauschenberg Posters. (Poster Pusher).(Book Review)
Author: Milton Glaser
Publication: Print (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2002
Publisher: RC Publications, Inc.
Volume: 56Issue: 2Page: 38(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Reviews (1)

Spectacular 20th Century Collection
Shows the works of the 5 prominent American Artist of the late 20th century ... Read more