White Paintings (1951)

In fall 1951 at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, Rauschenberg created five paintings consisting of one, two, three, four, or seven panels, each painted entirely white. In an October 1951 letter to the gallerist Betty Parsons, the artist described the works as “a group of paintings that I consider almost an emergency. . . .They are not Art because they take you to a place in painting art has not been.”

From their inception, Rauschenberg enlisted others to help paint or to repaint the works. When a White Painting became damaged or dirty, it was painted over or entirely remade to maintain a pristine surface; however, the date of each painting in the series is always 1951. Moreover, between 1953 and 1960, Rauschenberg reused the White Paintings as the grounds for new artworks, citing “boredom or economic pressure.” The first time the complete series was shown publicly was in 1968 at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York. On the occasion of the second exhibition of the complete series, at Ace Gallery in Venice, California, in April 1973, Rauschenberg signed, inscribed, and added fingerprints to the paintings; these are the works that are extant today.