Each Lightbox features a curated selection of artworks and archival materials, providing a focused look at central themes and topics of interest. Click “View All” to see the full selection of images and expanded text.
Tabula Rasa
While Rauschenberg is known as a brilliant colorist, this lightbox explores the artist’s periodic retreat to low- or no-color artworks throughout his career.
Paintings by Bob Rauschenberg at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York
This is a re-creation of Rauschenberg's first solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, May 14 - June 2, 1951.
Posters
This lightbox presents posters made for a variety of purposes over the course of Rauschenberg’s career: from those designed to advertise his own exhibitions and the work of his collaborators, to promotional pieces for the many social and political causes he supported.
From Red Paintings to Combines
In this lightbox, the Red Paintings (1953–54) explore the combination of paint, collage, and found objects that anticipate the three-dimensionality of Rauschenberg’s celebrated Combines begun shortly thereafter.
Tethering: Wall to Floor — Painting to Sculpture
Tethering wall and floor elements was a recurrent device used by Rauschenberg to blur and transcend the distinction between painting and sculpture.
Transfer Drawings
Rauschenberg’s transfer drawings combine imagery excerpted from printed mass media with hand drawn and painted passages to create pictorial poems.
The Black Mountain Years: Experiments and Collaborations
Rauschenberg’s encounters and collaborations with other artists at Black Mountain were critical to the development of his artistic sensibility.
Rauschenberg as Choreographer
Rauschenberg’s earliest explorations of avant-garde dance and performance
Trisha Brown and Rauschenberg’s Creative Alliance
Trisha Brown and Rauschenberg's life-long friendship and performance collaborations.
Rauschenberg and Cunningham
Rauschenberg’s collaborative relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham
Art For Good
Art for Good is an initiative to bring Rauschenberg’s artwork–and his generous spirit– to a new audience through carefully curated partnerships with major brands.