North African collages (1952–53)

Rauschenberg made the collages in this group from materials he collected during his travels in Italy, Spain, and North Africa in 1952–53. They consist of engravings he found in bookstalls and flea markets as well as miscellaneous printed papers that he adhered to cardboard inserts from laundered shirts. The artist did not conceive of these collages as a series. Approximately forty years later, however, he produced a suite of printed facsimiles 50 percent larger than the original works titled Shirtboards—Morocco/Italy, ‘52 (1991).