Red Paintings (1954)

To make these works, Rauschenberg applied primarily red paint to grounds of newspaper and patterned fabric on canvas in a variety of ways, including by brushing, dripping, and squeezing directly from the tube. Later examples incorporate found objects and anticipate the three-dimensionality of the Combines (1954–64). Rauschenberg later said that he chose red as a challenge because his teacher at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Josef Albers, considered it the most difficult color.