Black Paintings (1951–ca. 1955)

The Black Paintings were produced primarily between 1951 and 1953, first at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and then in Rauschenberg’s studio at 61 Fulton Street, New York. The series comprises mostly large-scale canvases featuring collaged newspaper and matte and/or glossy black paint. Rauschenberg later said that he began the Black Paintings and the White Paintings (1951) at the same time “so neither would be the answer.”