^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

Robert Rauschenberg at Tate Modern

Tate Modern’s major exhibition of the work of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), organised in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art in New York, is the first posthumous retrospective and the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work for 20 years. From his early engagement with pop to his works produced at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Robert Rauschenberg blazed a new trail for art. Moving between painting, sculpture, photography, print-making, technology, stage design and performance, he refused to accept conventional boundaries in art and in life.

 

^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

 

The first US artist to win the Golden Lion for painting at the Venice Biennale in 1963, Rauschenberg’s quest for innovation was fired by his openness to the world, his enthusiasm for collaboration and his passion for travel. Each chapter of Rauschenberg’s six-decade career is represented by major international loans that rarely travel. Among these is a selection of his iconic Combines, hybrids between painting and sculpture, which include Monogram 1955-59, travelling to the UK for the first time in over half a century, and Bed 1955.

 

^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

 

Tate Modern is also showing the signature silkscreen paintings that signalled Rauschenberg’s attempt to bring politics, mass media imagery and street scenes into his work, including Retroactive II 1964, which portrays John F. Kennedy, who had recently been assassinated.

 

^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

 

Performance and dance remained key drivers for Rauschenberg’s approach to art making and form a central strand of the exhibition. Documentation of his collaborations with Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown, as well as his own performance works will be included.

 

^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

 

A number of rooms will also illustrate Rauschenberg’s interest in pushing the limits of image-making with new materials such as printing on translucent textiles, polished steel or tarnished aluminium. A striking group of late inkjet paintings, combining dozens of images taken at home and abroad through the use of digital technology, reveal how he continued to innovate right into the twenty-first century.

 

^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

 

^{Image courtesy of Tate Modern}

 

Tate Modern, London
From December 1, 2016 to April 2, 2017

 

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