1953

[January]: Travels to Spain with Twombly, visiting Madrid, Toledo, and Barcelona before returning to Rome.

January 11–February 7: Included in Second Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, successor to the 9th Street Show of 1951, at Stable Gallery, New York, founded by Eleanor Ward (1909–1984) in December 1952. (This show would recur every year through 1957 and become known, familiarly, as the “Stable Annual.”) One of Rauschenberg’s Black Paintings is submitted to the exhibition by Tworkov, who has been storing it.

February: Returns with Twombly to Rome, where they rent a room at the Pensione Lago di Alleghe, near the Spanish Steps. Visits the artist Alberto Burri (1915–1995) in his studio in Rome, then visits again after learning that Burri is ill. Later recalls, “I was doing fetishes and immediately concocted and delivered a healing work for [Burri].” This get-well gift was a small box described by Burri as containing “sand and a dead fly.” Shortly after, Burri gives Rauschenberg an untitled miniature painting collaged with fabric.

Walter Auerbach (1908–1966), a photographer and friend of de Kooning’s, photographs Rauschenberg’s Scatole e Feticci Personali sculptures in the pensione and outdoors in the Pincio Gardens, Rome.

March 3–10: Bob Rauschenberg: Scatole e feticci personali, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Europe, is presented at Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome.

March 14: The concurrent exhibitions Scatole e costruzioni contemplative di Bob Rauschenberg and Mostra di arazzi di Cy Twombly open at Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea, Florence. Rauschenberg photographs the exhibition, and two of his works are sold to a local collector. The exhibition is covered widely in the local press, most notably by Carlo Volpe in Il nuovo Corriere, who says that “it would have been good fun . . . to fling that whole curse into the Arno.” Rauschenberg later claims to have followed the critic’s advice, although some works were evidently spared.

Late March: Travels with Twombly to Venice and takes photographs, including a double exposure of himself and Twombly on the loggia of the Basilica di San Marco.

April 3: Sails with Twombly from Naples to New York on the SS Andrea Doria, arriving on April 11.

April 15–May 9: Visits the exhibition Dada 1916–1923, curated and installed by Marcel Duchamp, during its run at Sidney Janis Gallery, New York.

Spring–Summer: Within days of his return to New York, rents the top floor of 61 Fulton Street, a former industrial building without plumbing in Lower Manhattan where he will live and work for several years. Retrieves canvases he has stored with Tworkov while overseas and resumes work on the Black Painting series. Begins the Elemental Sculpture series, collecting materials for the works from the streets of Lower Manhattan and the Staten Island waterfront.

Hired by Gene Moore to assist with window displays for Bonwit Teller.

September 15–October 3: Rauschenberg: Paintings and Sculpture and Cy Twombly: Paintings and Drawings are presented concurrently at Stable Gallery, New York. Rauschenberg shows examples of his White Paintings, Black Paintings, and Elemental Sculptures. Duchamp visits the show and meets Rauschenberg, who later recalls, “[Duchamp] picked up one of my sculptures [Music Box]. I knew who he was, and I was speechless. He turned the box over, knowing what was going to happen [i.e., that it would make noise]. He said, ‘I think I’ve heard that song’” (likely referring to his work With Hidden Noise of 1916, which also makes a noise when shaken).

Fall: Hired by Ward to hang exhibitions and to work as the janitor at Stable Gallery.

Creates Automobile Tire Print and Erased de Kooning Drawing. Experiments with making paintings from nontraditional materials such as dirt, toilet paper, and gold leaf, the last of which he has obtained from Gene Moore’s workshop.

[November 19–26]: Photographs Cunningham’s dance company rehearsing at 224 West 4th Street. Rauschenberg’s image of Carolyn Brown (1927–2025) from these rehearsals is used on a poster advertising upcoming performances at the Theatre de Lys, 121 Christopher Street, New York. Meets Paul Taylor, a dancer in Cunningham’s company.

[Winter 1953–54]: Introduced to Jasper Johns (b. 1930) by the artist (later critic) Suzi Gablik (1934–2022) on a street corner near the Marboro Books store on 57th Street, where Johns works. They meet again soon after at a party thrown by the artist Sari Dienes (1898–1992) in her apartment in the Sherwood Studio Building, above Marboro Books.