First UK Exhibition Dedicated to Rauschenberg's Major Series of Spreads, Inspired by "Autobiographical Feelings," After His Celebrated Combines

“They are more like ideas than objects―reels of association run through the projector of a mind unusually sensitive to the up-and-down jangles of modern life.” -Thomas B. Hess

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac London, together with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, presents the first UK exhibition dedicated to the American artist’s remarkable Spreads, a series that occupies an important position in his oeuvre. The large-scale Spreads (1975–83) encapsulate many of Robert Rauschenberg’s best-known motifs and materials. Twelve key works from the series―the largest of which stretches to over six metres wide―will go on view at Ropac’s London gallery from 28 November 2018. An integral series of paper collages from the same period will also be exhibited, incorporating fabrics and techniques that relate to the Spreads series.

One of the most influential artists of the post-war period, Rauschenberg revolutionised the picture plane with his hybrid painting-sculptures, created through the innovative inclusion of everyday objects―what he called “gifts from the street”. These Combines (1954–64) marked a watershed moment in the history of post-war art, redefining and expanding the boundaries of what could be considered an artwork. It was in 1976, as the artist prepared for an important mid-career retrospective, that Rauschenberg found inspiration for his new Spreads series. The exhibition, which opened at the National Collection of Fine Arts (now Smithsonian American Art Museum) in Washington, D.C., offered Rauschenberg the opportunity to revisit works he had not seen for up to 25 years, prompting what he described as “autobiographical feelings”, and imparting a retrospective aspect to his new works.

In these Spreads, “classic Rauschenberg” motifs from his object-laden Combines resurfaced, including tyres, doors, bedding, ironing boards, mirrors, electric lights, ventilators, metal traps, images of exotic animals, bird wings, umbrellas and parachutes that recalled those in his acclaimed 1963 performance piece Pelican. Yet these fulcrum works were also informed by the materials and images of his silken Jammers (1975–76) and solvent- transfer Hoarfrosts (1974–76), whilst prefiguring his later metal works from the 1980s–90s, such as the Shiners (1986–93), Urban Bourbons (1988–96) and Borealis (1988–92).

“Rauschenberg is a painter of history―the history of now rather than then.” -John Richardson

Rather than a purely retrospective exercise, the development of his Spreads is also suggestive of a more complex relationship between past and present, integrating not only elements from his earlier work but also reflecting changes in his life, his practice and in contemporary art at the time. Rauschenberg’s use of fabric colour blocks in his Spreads not only represented a shift in his colour palette from the urban experience of New York to the bright oranges, pinks and yellows of life in Florida, but also engaged with recent artistic developments such as Colour Field painting and Minimalism, incorporating references to a new generation of artists.

In the works directly preceding the Spreads, particularly his Cardboards (1971–72) and fabric Jammers, Rauschenberg had eliminated imagery in favour of a sparser visual language focused on materials. After the relative minimalism of these series, the excesses of the Spreads marked a triumphant return to imagery. “In recent years this artist has left everything out, the Jammers being the prime example,” wrote critic William Zimmer of the Spreads exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery in 1976. “Rauschenberg has put everything in again. Replacing the raucous gestural passages that mark his early work are tighter passages [. . .] Although there is once again a lot going on, it is cleaner. The whole earth catalogue, from arcane imagery to very public signs, is back and actual pendant objects reappear―a rubber raft, chairs, tyres, electric lights.” The pendant objects that appear in the works on view include lightbulbs, umbrellas, mirrors, a metal bucket, split tyre, and even an oar. These are affixed to wooden panels and collaged with fabric scraps and solvent transferred media images drawn from contemporary newspapers and magazines.

Asked about his use of the term “Spread”, Rauschenberg responded that it meant “as far as I can make it stretch, and land (like a farmer’s ‘spread’), and also the stuff you put on toast”. This term also clearly refers to the scale of the works, with their large, fabric-covered supports that stretch across the wall. The first work in the series, Yule 75, was created in December 1975 and cut into 56 irregular pieces that Rauschenberg distributed to his friends as Christmas gifts. Another of the earliest, Rodeo Palace (1976) was commissioned for the exhibition The Great American Rodeo at the Fort Worth Art Museum, and later included in Rauschenberg’s 1976 retrospective. The same expansiveness and breadth of vision characterises the works included in this exhibition, with the largest work, Half a Grandstand (1978), stretching to over six metres.

The accompanying exhibition catalogue with an essay by Elisa Schaar, published to coincide with the exhibition opening, is the first publication devoted to Rauschenberg’s Spreads.

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has represented the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation since April 2015.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Pace Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s Vydock series – large-scale works of acrylic paint, silkscreened images of Rauschenberg’s own photographs and graphite on white aluminum. Rarely seen since its initial exhibition in 1995, the Vydock series features the white background that characterizes much of Rauschenberg’s later production, and bridges the artist’s earlier works on metal with his later Anagram (1995–97) and Anagram (A Pun) (1997–2002) series. Presented in Pace’s recently-opened gallery in Hong Kong’s new H Queen’s building, Robert Rauschenberg: Vydocks will be on view September 19 – November 2, 2018, with a special opening reception on Tuesday, September 18, from 6 – 8 pm. On the occasion of the exhibition, Pace will publish a full-color catalogue with an essay, in both English and traditional Chinese, by American poet and critic John Yau.

“Rauschenberg was a tireless innovator in a constant quest to capture our common yet also intrinsically personal experience of the ephemerality of time and our shifting perceptions and recollections of the world around us,” said Marc Glimcher, Pace Gallery President and CEO. “He was not an artist bound to a particular medium or set of rules, rather he consistently challenged existing parameters of art and prevailing frameworks of modernism. While the Vydock series represents a pivotal phase of Rauschenberg’s ever-evolving practice – uniting his early and late works and introducing key motifs into his creative arsenal; these works have gone largely unseen and underappreciated since they were first shown over twenty years ago. With this exhibition, we are thrilled to take a critical step to change that course, and honored to reintroduce the series to Rauschenberg scholars, collectors and the public alike.”

Rauschenberg completed the Vydocks as the last painting series in which he used acrylic, silkscreened images, and metal supports. The vertical passages in Vydocks traverse a wide chromatic spectrum in a kind of farewell engagement with a medium the artist shortly set aside. The exhibition will include a selection of eight Vydock works, each of which Rauschenberg created on identical sheets of bonded aluminum, measuring around eight feet high by five feet wide. The proportions of the panels, which the artist custom ordered and prepared, suggest the significance that Rauschenberg placed on shaping his work on a human scale, approximating the height and width of a person’s reach. Each panel has a pristine, resistant white surface onto which he brushed acrylic paint, transferred silkscreen images, and drew graphite lines—three distinct elements traditionally relating to three different artistic practices: painting, photography, and drawing. Rauschenberg harnessed these techniques to create compositions of balanced coexistence, underscoring his openness to diverse materials and processes and his embrace of the dialogues and understandings that such juxtapositions can catalyze.

The Vydock works possess a similar balance in their imagery, with neither abstraction nor representation dominating. Each panel features Rauschenberg’s own photographs, capturing everything from a seagull resting on a pier to a towel hanging on a clothes line, silkscreened on either side of slanting painted multi-color vertical bands, which rise along the height of the metal support. The pairing of photographic images and painted passages that reoccurs through the series reveals Rauschenberg’s ongoing exploration of the relationships between abstraction and representation, painting and photography, and the original and the copy. An ardent believer in time’s unrepeatability and the unique significance and substance of every moment, Rauschenberg relentlessly sought to create art that captured the elusive nature of time, perception, reality and memory. The Vydock series represents a critical element of that artistic and philosophical pursuit; and shows the artist striving to express the infinitely different ways one sees and remembers the world.

• reside 50 miles or more away from the Foundation;
• not have received a grant or other funding from the Foundation in the past 3 years; and
• be at the graduate level and above.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s 2016-2017 Artist as Activist Fellowships were awarded to independent artists and art collectives whose work addresses racial justice through the lens of mass incarceration.

The Rauschenberg Foundation is pleased to announce the award winners for the 2018 Rauschenberg Foundation Archives Research Travel Fund, a resource for researchers and scholars interested in visiting the Rauschenberg Foundation Archives in New York City.  The Fund provides partial support for incurred costs related to travel expenses related to the visit. This year's winners were selected from a competitive pool including historians, artists, curators, writers, poets, and educators from over twenty-five different countries. They will be researching in residence at the Foundation throughout 2018.

"Robert Rauschenberg was an artist of endless possibility, collaboration, and interpretation; his archives are the same. The inaugural researchers have the potential to reinterpret materials with diverse viewpoints and unique lines of investigations." said Francine Snyder, Director of Archives and Scholarship. "We look forward to contemporary interpretations of the archives." 

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, consisting of Robert Rauschenberg's personal papers and the records from his Florida and New York studios, is the most comprehensive body of information on the artist's life and career.  The Archives Research Travel Fund supports continued scholarly and investigative use of these materials by supporting individuals that demonstrate a compelling need to use the archives and addressing financial barriers that may prohibit onsite access to the Archives. The application is open to all individuals encouraging research opportunities that move beyond traditional art historical discourse.

Please visit the Travel Fund page to learn more about the travel fund as well as the 2018 recipients and their research projects. 

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

We are excited to announce the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives Research Travel Fund, a new opportunity for researchers and scholars interested in visiting the Rauschenberg Foundation and its Archives in New York City.  The Fund will provide partial support for incurred costs related to travel expenses related to the visit.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, consisting of Robert Rauschenberg’s personal papers and the records from his Florida and New York studios, is the most comprehensive body of information on the artist’s life and career.  The Archives Research Travel Fund supports continued scholarly and investigative use of these materials by supporting individuals that demonstrate a compelling need to use the archives and addressing financial barriers that may prohibit onsite access to the Archives. In addition, the application is open to all individuals, thereby encouraging research opportunities that move beyond traditional art historical discourse.

We invite scholars, academics, artists, and other researchers who can demonstrate a compelling need to use the archival materials onsite at the Foundation to apply. To be eligible, applicants must:

• reside 50 miles or more away from the Foundation;
• not have received a grant or other funding from the Foundation in the past 3 years; and
• be at the graduate level and above or equivalent.

All individuals eligible to travel in the United States are invited to apply. Please note, priority will be given to independent researchers or those affiliated with institutions with limited resources. Eligible travel dates are between March 1 – December 14, 2018.

Applications will open November 14, 2017, deadline to apply is December 15, 2017. More information, including eligible projects, selection criteria, and how to apply, can be found in Grants or by downloading the application guidelines.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

A fuse was lit in the 1953 art world when Robert Rauschenberg convinced artist Willem de Kooning to allow him to erase one of his drawings; fellow artist Jasper Johns executed the inscription within the frame: “ERASED DE KOONING DRAWING ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 1953.” Now seen as a bombshell that shook the foundations of Abstract Expressionism, Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953) is an outstanding example of Rauschenberg’s irreverent yet incisive style, and it famously pushes the limits of what art can be.

This special work was acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from Rauschenberg through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis, an instrumental member of the board of trustees who befriended Rauschenberg late in her life. It now anchors the museum’s exceptional holdings of the artist’s early work and is a highlight in the West Coast exclusive of Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules, on view at SFMOMA from November 18, 2017 through March 25, 2018.

Formerly presented at Tate Modern, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the exhibition’s iteration in San Francisco pays special tribute to SFMOMA’s close and longstanding relationship with Rauschenberg. From hosting his first retrospective — organized by Walter Hopps in 1976 — to spearheading the recent Rauschenberg Research Project — an ambitious digital resource published on sfmoma.org that makes art historical and conservation research about Rauschenberg works widely accessible — SFMOMA has long been devoted to this extraordinary and trail-blazing figure. This presentation is also dedicated to Phyllis C. Wattis, in honor of her generosity and cherished relationship with the artist and SFMOMA.

“Robert Rauschenberg and Phyllis Wattis were kindred spirits,” said Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA. “Both were eager to discover new ideas that broke old boundaries. They relished life and art with expansiveness of spirit and always with a twinkle in their eyes.”

A defining figure of contemporary art, Rauschenberg produced a prolific body of work across a wide range of media — including painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, photography and performance — frequently and fearlessly defying the traditional art practice of his time. Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules marks the first retrospective of the artist’s work in nearly 20 years, celebrating the depth and scope of his six-decade career. SFMOMA’s presentation emphasizes his iconoclastic approach, his multidisciplinary working processes and frequent collaborations with other artists.

Largely organized chronologically, the exhibition begins with the artist’s wide-ranging early work, from bold blueprint photograms and intimate photographs to his delicate Scatole personali (1952–1953) (boxes filled with found objects). These galleries introduce Rauschenberg’s eagerness to experiment with and break from artistic conventions, his innovative approach to materials and his multi-disciplinary and collaborative nature, all of which were driving forces throughout his career. This early period plays out across three locales: Black Mountain College, a fertile ground for experimentation where Rauschenberg studied with Josef Albers and Hazel Larsen Archer, and undertook his first important collaborations with Susan Weil, Cy Twombly, John Cage and Merce Cunningham; North Africa and Italy, where Rauschenberg traveled with Twombly; and lower Manhattan, where he set up his early studios and worked in close dialogue with Jasper Johns.

Among the many highlights of the exhibition is Automobile Tire Print (1953) in SFMOMA’s collection, made when the artist instructed composer John Cage to drive his Model A Ford through a pool of paint and then across 20 sheets of paper. The layered paper and fabrics in his Black paintings and Red paintings led to the artist’s landmark Combines (1954–64), a body of work that breaks down the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Collection (1954/1955) and Charlene (1954) are presented together for the first time in almost four decades, providing a rare opportunity to see and compare the range of strategies Rauschenberg explored in the Combines’ formative stages. Monogram (1955–59), his landmark work assembled from a taxidermied goat with a painted tire around its body, anchors this presentation.

The exhibition continues by presenting key periods of the artist’s career in depth, including a gallery devoted to transfer drawings and silkscreen paintings. For the Thirty-Four Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno (1958–60), Rauschenberg clipped pictures from magazines and newspapers, illustrating Dante’s epic poem with images from contemporary American life. Rauschenberg’s merging of classical themes, art history references, contemporary politics and pop culture culminate in the silkscreen paintings, such as the vibrant Scanning (1963) and Persimmon (1964). Rauschenberg also actively explored technological innovations for his performances and artworks in the early 1960s. Collaborations with Billy Klüver and a team of engineers lead to the inclusion of embedded radios in Oracle (1962–65). For the sound-activated work Mud Muse (1968–71) the artist constructed an enormous vat of vigorously spurting and bubbling mud. Originally conceived for an exhibition in Los Angeles and inspired by a hydrothermal basin in Yellowstone National Park, this presentation marks Mud Muse’s first return to California since 1971.

In 1970, Rauschenberg relocated his primary residence and studio to Captiva Island, Florida, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. These new surroundings prompted the creation of the series Cardboards (1971–72). SFMOMA’s Rosalie / Red Cheek / Temporary Letter / Stock (Cardboard) (1971), one of the earliest of the series, encapsulates this move with a mailing label from Rauschenberg’s New York studio to his Captiva address affixed to its front. Far from isolated in Florida, Rauschenberg constantly welcomed visitors, many of them artists, and continued to travel frequently. A trip to India inspired his striking, lively series Jammers (1975–76); a 1982 visit to China ultimately lead to the launch of ROCI (the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange), an intense seven-year project encompassing travel, art-making and exhibitions in over 10 countries. Rauschenberg’s own photos from this period of travel appear in many later works including SFMOMA’s Port of Entry [Anagram (A Pun)] (1998).

SFMOMA’s presentation also will be distinguished by a single gallery presentation featuring Hiccups (1978), an extraordinary work comprising 97 pieces of handmade paper, each with transfer images and collaged bits of fabric and ribbon. Individual sheets are connected with zippers, with the intent that they could be reorganized into any order. In 1999, Rauschenberg gave Hiccups to SFMOMA in honor of Phyllis Wattis. This treasured work will be installed as a continuous frieze around the perimeter of a gallery.

The exhibition culminates with Rauschenberg’s late work, including his series Gluts (1986–94), assemblages of scrap-metal that point to the excessive consumption of American society, yet also incorporate humor. The artist’s metal paintings of the 1990s, such as Holiday Ruse (Night Shade) (1991), feature subtly layered images silkscreened onto sheets of aluminum and bronze with tarnishing agents. The color transfer paintings of the 1990s and 2000s employ photographs printed with environmentally-friendly inks via cutting-edge digital printers and image-editing software, a testament to the artist’s ongoing embrace of emerging technologies and materials.

Education and Public Practice

To accompany the exhibition, SFMOMA will present a range of public programs that explore Rauschenberg’s work. On December 2, 2017, Bay Area educators are invited to visit Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules, as a part of the Special Saturdays for Teachers series. The museum will also provide free public tours, grade 9–12 school tours and higher education tours during the run of the exhibition. On February 10, scholars, students and curators will convene for a series of panels and discussions on Rauschenberg’s relationship to the photographic image in the colloquium Rauschenberg and The Agility of Images. In addition, SFMOMA 101, a three-week public course for adults, will be offered on February 1, February 8 and February 15, 2018 ($60 members/$80 general). These sessions will explore his vast and varied work across his career as well as his influence on contemporary artists working today.

Performance at SFMOMA looks to Rauschenberg’s rich collaborations with postmodern dance innovators. On January 11–13, Performance in Progress presents DESIRE LINES: RETROFIT from choreographers and former Merce Cunningham dancers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener. Mitchell and Riener bring a close circle of movement artists to activate museum space and weigh the resonances between dance and visual art. Their performances kick off Limited Edition, a program presented by the museum’s online platform, Open Space. Limited Edition features a season of live work at the museum and at local institutions CounterPulse, ODC Theater, The Lab and Z Space. Limited Edition also includes an offering from SFMOMA’s Performance All Ages series, providing the opportunity for audiences of all ages to join the artists of BodyCartography Project on March 17–18 for drop-in participatory movement pieces that connect to Rauschenberg’s performances.

Select programs in conjunction with Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules are made possible through a grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is announcing emergency grants for two Florida organizations to provide support and aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The Foundation donated $25,000 to the Henry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida and $30,000 to the Redlands Christian Migrant Association through the Southwest Florida Community Foundation.

The first donation was given to the Henry Chapin Food Bank for immediate relief, providing food and water to victims of the catastrophe in southwest Florida. The Food Bank has been serving the underprivileged for decades, and in the wake of Hurricane Irma, has been especially integral in rebuilding a community in need. With these funds, the HCFB will be able to ensure that affected families will have access to nutritious food and fresh produce.

The second grant was donated to the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, who provide child-care and early educational services to children of migrant farm workers and rural, low-income families. A majority of these families live in trailers that were destroyed or damaged during the storm. The RCMA is using these funds to help relocate families, and provide resources for any additional housing needs.

"The affects Hurricane Irma have had on Florida are devastating, but the community response has been overwhelming and inspiring. Floridians have long been dedicated to helping each other, and as an organization with deep roots in the state, we thought it was our duty to help those suffering in this time of need," said newly appointed Executive Director of the Foundation, Kathy Halbreich.

Since 1990, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has served as a cultural institution both extending the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg’s work and strengthening the field for artists who follow in his activist footsteps. The Foundation supports artists and creative thinkers through a residency program at the artist’s home and studio in Captiva, Florida where he spent the last half of his life. The Foundation has also partnered with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation to provide grants to organizations with innovative approaches to improving the quality of life in Southwest Florida.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is dedicated to cultivating growth in Florida and hopes to continue supporting the state in a larger capacity with these grants.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Lin-Manuel Miranda through The Hispanic Federation Relief Effort today announced emergency grants totaling $300,000 to aid the artists and cultural workers of Puerto Rico struggling to recover from the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria. The $100,000 grants from each partner were made to El Serrucho: Hurricane Maria Emergency Fund, recently launched by the San Juan-based arts organization Beta-Local.

Beta-Local has strong ties to the island’s grassroots artist community and the network of people and projects supported by Beta-Local is actively involved in local relief efforts—despite needing relief itself. The grants will support these leadership efforts and allow the organization to fortify and extend its work with community organizations and individuals in need. The fund is designed to roll out in phases and encompass both immediate and longer-term arts recovery efforts.

Warhol Foundation President, Joel Wachs emphasized that, “as foundations created by and for experimental artists, Warhol and Rauschenberg are especially attuned to the vulnerabilities of artistic communities. We are grateful to Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Hispanic Federation Relief Effort for joining forces so that together we can make the strongest show of solidarity and support for artists in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.”

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s newly appointed Executive Director Kathy Halbreich shared “when something unsettles our field as urgently as Hurricane Maria did to the thriving artists' community in Puerto Rico, prompt and collaborative action can make a real difference to people's sense of immediate security as well as their ability to imagine a productive future. I am thrilled that the organizations of three deeply innovative and fearless artists — Warhol, Rauschenberg, and Lin-Manuel Miranda could quickly band together to make a difference in the lives of artists in dire need.”

“I am honored to partner with the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to launch this initiative acknowledging the vital role of arts and cultural workers in forging strong communities. The initiative will help them continue their work in this time of great need,” said award-winning composer, writer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Broadway’s Hamilton.

Mr. Miranda has been working to raise funds for the Hispanic Federation’s Relief Effort and $100,000 will be earmarked for this initiative. The mission of the Hispanic Federation is to empower and advance the Hispanic community. The Hispanic Federation provides grants and services to a broad network of Latino non-profit agencies serving the most vulnerable members of the Hispanic community.

Since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, over half of the island's population does not have access to clean water and less than 5% have electricity. Beta-Local's Emergency Fund is providing support in two waves of funding for Puerto Ricans. First, funds will go to the cultural workers who are already working on relief work in the island. These workers have been actively supporting rebuilding their communities and Beta-Local is making sure these efforts can continue. Second, Beta-Local will create a series of grants for local artists and cultural workers to continue their work in growing the Puerto Rican arts community.

Beta-Local’s co-director Sofía Gallisá explained why these grants were so integral, “Considering the economic precarity that existed long before the storm, and the loss of income, housing, transport, equipment, and other materials that many have undergone, this is a defining moment for our country and our cultural scene, and we want to do all we can to foster its continued development because we know cultural agents will be invaluable in this recovery process.”

To find out more about the fund, visit http://betalocal.org/el-serrucho-post-maria/

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced today the appointment of Kathy Halbreich as Executive Director. Read the New York Times coverage of this announcement here.

Official press release:

Halbreich, who currently serves as Associate Director of The Museum of Modern Art, is a visionary in keeping with Robert Rauschenberg’s spirit. She brings to the Foundation more than 30 years of experience leading cultural institutions, a fundamental belief in the power of artists to catalyze social change, and a deep commitment to the role artist foundations can play in expanding opportunities for cultural conversation. The appointment is effective November 1, 2017.

“My father’s work was bold, rigorously and relentlessly experimental, and engaged with cultures across the globe,” said Chris Rauschenberg, President of the Foundation. “Kathy embodies my father’s belief in art as transformational and we are thrilled that she will bring that devotion to the Rauschenberg Foundation.”

 “It’s an honor to have Kathy join us,” said Michael Straus, the Foundation’s Board Chair.  “She is a person of great strength and passion, held with global respect and admiration throughout the art world.  We are enthusiastically looking forward to her leadership of the Foundation as we advance Robert Rauschenberg’s artistic legacy together with his deeply democratic values and vision.”

“Robert Rauschenberg was an artist who fearlessly and inventively bent all the rules, and in doing so, gave singular permission to artists across a myriad of disciplines to chart new ways of defining what an artist is, of making art and of being in the world,” said Halbreich. “This aesthetic range mirrored his extraordinary generosity and collaborative spirit. I cannot imagine a more thrilling challenge than to work alongside the Foundation’s remarkable staff to build upon Bob’s own template in serving other artists and the public at large.”

For the past nine years, Halbreich has served as the Associate Director at The Museum of Modern Art, where she also was the lead curator of “Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010,” organized with Tate Modern. This was the first major exhibition to include all of the media explored by Polke and was one of the largest shows ever organized at the Museum. Named the museum's inaugural Laurenz Foundation Curator in 2016, Halbreich currently leads the curatorial team for "Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts," a collaboration between MoMA and Schaulager, Basel. This retrospective, the first comprehensive one in more than 20 years, will be presented at The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1 and Schaulager, where it will premier in March 2018 before opening in New York next fall. Halbreich will continue to oversee “Disappearing Acts”, in addition to her work at the Foundation, and will retain her position at the Museum as Laurenz Foundation Curator through the show’s New York opening. Halbreich also will hold the post at the Museum of Advisor to the Director during this time.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Kathy since she joined the Museum nearly 10 years ago,” said MoMA Director Glenn Lowry.  “She has been instrumental in the transformation of MoMA and MoMA PS1 – making them ever more vibrant places where people from all over the world can discover great art and great artists.  Kathy also has been a true partner and friend, and I am so happy that, in her new role with The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, she will have an extraordinary opportunity to build on her commitment to artists and their work.”

Prior to MoMA, Halbreich served for 16 years as Director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. Under her leadership, Walker diversified its visitor base, expanded its civic and international presence, and broadened its multidisciplinary programming in the visual, performing, and media arts. During her tenure as Director, Walker presented groundbreaking exhibitions featuring the work of Chantal Akerman, Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, Hélio Oiticica, and Kara Walker, as well as the exhibition “How Latitudes Become Form: Art in a Global Age.”  She also oversaw the expansion by Herzog & de Meuron, which included a theater and provided the Performing Arts Department with its first professional home.

An award-winning curator, Halbreich has been inducted into the American Association of Museums Centennial Honor Roll, received the Award for Curatorial Excellence from Bard College, and was named by France as a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1995. She also served as commissioner for North America and Cuba at the Gwangju Biennale (1995), was appointed curatorial advisor for the Carnegie International (1988) and is a member of the Documenta X and Documenta XIII International Committees. She is also a board member of the Doris Duke Foundation.

Since 1990, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has served as a cultural institution both extending the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg’s work and strengthening the field for artists who follow in his activist footsteps. The Foundation supports artists and creative thinkers from a diverse mix of disciplines, backgrounds, ages, and career levels, through a residency program at the artist’s home and studio in Captiva, Florida. The Foundation’s Artist as Activist program, provides game-changing resources to artists of all disciplines who address important global challenges through their creative practice. For the past two grant-making cycles the initiative has supported artists using their work to explore problems relating to mass incarceration in the United States. The Foundation’s SEED program provides financial support to innovative early-stage arts projects in cities across the United States.

The Foundation worked closely with MoMA to feature “Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends”. The first 21st-century retrospective of the artist, an exhibit which includes over 250 works across media from Rauschenberg’s six-decade career and celebrates his strong belief in artistic collaboration. In November, the exhibition will open at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where it will feature additional works for “Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules”, a retrospective dedicated to Rauschenberg’s life and lasting impact in subverting the conventional rules of art.

Kathy Halbreich's biography:

Kathy Halbreich joined The Museum of Modern Art in the newly created position of Associate Director in February 2008 and was named the first Laurenz Foundation Curator in March 2016. Halbreich focuses on curatorial and strategic issues designed to amplify contemporary programs and initiatives at MoMA and PS1, both locally and globally. In 2014, she was the lead curator of “Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010,” organized with Tate Modern. This was the first major exhibition to include all of the mediums explored by Polke and was one of the largest shows ever organized at MoMA.  Halbreich currently heads the curatorial team for “Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts,” an upcoming retrospective, co-organized with Schaulager, where it will premiere in March 2018 before opening at MoMA in the fall. 

Prior to joining the Museum, Halbreich served as director of the Walker Art Center for 16 years. During her tenure, the Walker diversified its visitor base, extended its civic and international presence, and broadened its multidisciplinary programming in the visual, performing, and media arts. Under Halbreich’s leadership, the Walker presented many groundbreaking exhibitions, such as those devoted to the artists Chantal Akerman, Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, Hélio Oiticica, and Kara Walker, as well as How Latitudes Become Form: Art in a Global Age, which was the result of a three-year partnership with a Global Advisory Committee. Beginning in 1985, Halbreich also organized the exhibition Against Nature: Contemporary Art in Japan, with partners in Japan and the United States.

Inducted into the American Association of Museums Centennial Honor Roll, a recipient of the Award for Curatorial Excellence from Bard College, and named a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters, Halbreich has served as commissioner for North America and Cuba at the Gwangju Biennale (1995) and curatorial advisor for the Carnegie International as well as a member of the Documenta X and Documenta XIII International Committees. She is a board member of the Doris Duke Foundation.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Today we announced the recipients of our 2017 Artist as Activist fellowship, a two-year grant designed to support the growing body of accomplished independent artists and artist collectives who are applying their creative practices to address critical social challenges. This year’s cohort features artists who are leveraging multimedia, performance, and cultural organizing to draw specific attention to the ways in which the prison-industrial complex disproportionately affects generations of immigrants and people of color in the United States. Using various artistic strategies, the 2017 Fellows go beyond awareness-building to also spur action and envision the new policies and cultural practices required to create a world without mass incarceration.

“Artists have a history of harnessing their work to bring fresh insights to social issues and to galvanize communities into action. This year’s fellows draw much needed attention to the ways in which our current criminal justice system impacts families, communities, and our country at large,” said Risë Wilson, director of philanthropy of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “By supporting and building this community of artists, we are strengthening the field of practice where art and activism intersect, while also ensuring timely, relevant work has the visibility and platform it requires.”

The Rauschenberg Foundation received more than 275 applications for the 2017 Artist as Activist Fellowship, which grants up to $100,000 per fellow over a two-year period. This year’s artists were selected based on their project’s bold vision, as well as the artists’ fluency in this issue and their demonstrated capacity to impact communities most affected by mass incarceration. The fellows selected for the 2017 cohort reflect a geographic and cultural diversity as a group, but also a range of artistic mediums and approaches to this issue—from the impact of mass incarceration on reproductive justice to its intersections with deportations and immigrant detention.

Since 2015, The Rauschenberg Foundation has invested over $2.1 million in grant funding to artist-led projects, nineteen of which focused on mass incarceration. The fellowship has provided a significant launching pad for these projects, spurring additional investments from prominent philanthropies, and culminating in a well-received symposium last year that included leaders in criminal justice, philanthropy, and art.

“This year’s fellows really represent the best of the best that our nation has to offer. They are carrying on Bob’s legacy, which realizes and channels the power of art to bring about social change,” said Sharon Ullman, acting executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “We are proud to continue shining a spotlight on artists who have dedicated their professional and personal lives to advancing fearless, forward-thinking projects.”

When 2017 Chef-in-Residence Isaac Saunders arrived in Captiva in January, he spoke about his particular interest with the garden and his excitement about working with ingredients indigenous to the island. Six months into his residency, he is sharing two new recipes he created using unconventional vegetation, such as Hong Kong Orchids, grown on the property.

Check out the recipes below. 

Coconut and Preserved Hong Kong Orchid Sorbet

Makes 3 Pints

Coconut Cream                                                     1 Qt
Hong Kong Orchids Preserved in Sugar              To Taste
Salt                                                                       To Taste
Sorbet Stabilizer                                                  .05% of Total Base Weight (Or as instructed per the specific stabillizer used)

This is a very simple recipe that can be made very quickly and without too much planning if you have a good blender and an ice cream machine.  The biggest part of the process is cleaning and preserving the flowers.  You can use any edible flower you have available to you as the process is the same regardless.  First take your flowers and gently rinse them in cold water.  Then soak them in water overnight in the refrigerator.  The next day take the weight of the flowers after draining the water and mix them with 2 parts sugar by weight.  For example, if your flowers weigh 250 grams mix them with 500 grams of sugar.  This mixture should stay in your refrigerator for about a month before you use them.  The longer they stay in the sugar the more flavor you will extract, to a point.  Try to stir the mixture every week or so as the flowers tend to fall to the bottom. 

To make the sorbet, bring your coconut cream to a boil and place in the blender.  Add about ½ cup of the preserved flowers and a teaspoon of salt and blend on high until the sugar dissolves and the flowers have broken down.  Taste and reseason as you see fit but remember that because you will be eating the ice cream cold you will need to season the base more heavily.  Once you have seasoned the mixture to where you want it, thoroughly blend in your stabilizer.  Chill the mixture in an ice bath before putting into your ice cream machine.  Spin until the mixture reaches your preferred texture and enjoy!

Tea Soaked Sesame Cake

Makes One 8x10 Inch Cake

Ingredients:

Butter                                                                     ½ pound or 210g
Sesame Oil                                                             ½ Tablespoon
Sugar                                                                      2 cups or 370g
Extra Large Whole Eggs                                        4 ea
AP Flour                                                                 2 ½ cups or 340g
Lightly Toasted Sesame Seeds                               ½ cup or 70g
Baking Powder                                                       ½ teaspoon or 2.5g
Salt                                                                          ½ tablespoon or 4.5g
Milk                                                                        1 cup or 240g
Pan Spray

For the Tea Syrup:

Your Favorite Tea                                                    4-6 Cups
Your Favorite Honey                                               To taste

The tea syrup should be made first and let to cool as it should be applied at room temperature.  Make your favorite type of tea to the strength you prefer.  Here at the residency we dry herbs and flowers from the garden for teas which gives this syrup a very distinct flavor.  I personally like to err on the strong side as I enjoy the bitterness from a strong steep in combination with the sweet sesame cake.  Once you have brewed your tea, season it with honey and a little bit of salt and allow it to come to room temperature.  Set aside for later use.  This is also the point at which you could add a little bit (or a lot) of liquor or hard alcohol to your syrup to liven it up if you are so inclined. 

Preheat oven to 375

To start the cake recipe we want to have everything measured out into individual containers and brought to room temperature.   The flour should be sifted before being mixed thoroughly with the sesame seeds, baking powder and salt.  The first step of making the cake batter is to cream the butter, sesame oil and sugar, either in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer.   Let the mixture cream for at least 10 minutes until it looks light and fluffy and some of the grainy texture in the sugar is gone.  Make sure to scrape the bowl a few times during this process to ensure an even texture.  Once this is done, add your eggs one at a time until completely and evenly combined, again making sure to scrape the bowl and mix thoroughly.  The next step is to alternate adding the dry mixture and the milk in two stages.  That meaning that first you add half the dry, mix on the lowest setting for 2 seconds, then half the milk, mix again for 2 seconds, the rest of the dry, mix for 2 seconds, and then finally the rest of the milk.  Now, before you mix it again, be aware that the texture of the batter will look a bit clumpy at this point, that’s what we want.  For the final mix you’re going to crank the mixer as high as it will go and whip the batter for maybe four or 5 seconds which should give you a nice homogenous batter.  This is the most dangerous part of the recipe as people tend to over mix during this final step… Don’t do it! The cake will be tough and chewy and dense if you do! Once you have your batter made, gently place it in a baking dish lined with parchment paper and lightly sprayed with some sort of pan spray to prevent it from sticking to the dish.  When putting the batter into the dish it is important to touch it as little as possible with your spatula but under no circumstances should you tap the dish on the table to level out the batter!  A lot of the leavening in this cake comes from the expansion of the steam trapped in the small bubbles that we formed when creaming the butter, sugar and egg mixture in the beginning of the process.  Smacking the table with the dish will burst all of these fragile bubbles and give you a flat dense brick, not ideal… Once the batter has been safely put into your baking dish let it rest with a damp towel over the top for about 20 minutes at room temperature before you bake it.  Bake at 375 in the middle of your oven for 15 minutes, then rotate and bake for another 15 minutes.  Check for doneness by using a cake tester, if the cake is not done continue to bake at 5 minute intervals checking and rotating every time you go back into the oven.  After the cake is done let it cool on a wire rack for a total of 30 to 40 minutes.  After the first 10 minutes, remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool uncovered for the remainder of the resting period.

Assembly

Depending on how you want to showcase the cake you can either cut it into pieces appropriate to your use or leave the cake whole.  I prefer to cut the cake before soaking as it opens up the more absorbent interior.  When applying the syrup, spoon a generous amount onto the cake over a wire rack above a tray of some sort.  The excess syrup will drip through the cake and onto the tray.  After soaking you are ready to serve!

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Rauschenberg’s A Quake in Paradise (Labyrinth) will be on view at MASS MoCA from May 28, 2017–May 26, 2018. This site specific work invites viewers to move through — and become a part of — a maze-like installation of panels. This will be the first time the work is on view in over a decade. It is shown in tandem with The Lurid Attack of the Monsters from the Postal News Aug 1875, a work from the Kabal American Zephyr series, which was inspired by the macabre work of nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock printmaker Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

In September 2014, on the eve of the UN Climate Summit, the Peoples Climate Movement organized a historic march through the streets of New York City to demand action on the global climate crisis. This march laid the groundwork for the growth of the People's Climate Movement (PCM), and helped re-boot the national climate movement. The following year, PCM focused on strengthening the movement at a local level, organizing 200 actions in forthy-eight locations to highlight the realities in those cities. 

On April 29, Artist as Activist fellow People’s Collective Arts will join over 50 other organizations to mobilize the national climate justice movement and march for climate, jobs, and justice in Washington D.C. 

Join the Movement

A black-and-white photograph of Rauschenberg smiling broadly, wearing a star badge on his shirt, was taken by Sidney Felsen, while Rauschenberg was working at Gemini G.E.L. on his Stoned Moon project.

On the invitation of NASA, Rauschenberg journeyed to Cape Canaveral, Florida in July 1969 to witness the Apollo 11 space launch—the first mission to land man on the moon. The Stoned Moon project, consisting of thirty-four lithographs, was created by Rauschenberg and produced in collaboration with Ken Tyler, a master printer at Los Angeles–based Gemini G.E.L. studios. Source images for the edition came from NASA charts, maps, and pictures he received at the launch.

So why the star while working on this project? According to a story shared by Sidney Felsen in his oral history, it was all in good fun: “Bob was born and grew up in Port Arthur, Texas. Texas is associated with sheriffs and so somebody—one of the wise-ass printers in the shop—decided to make a sheriff’s badge and give it to Bob. It’s gold, actually. It’s a gold star.” A gag that shows the playfulness and personal connection Rauschenberg had with the printers.

Felsen described Rauschenberg as “a super collaborator, in the sense that he was very human in his approach. He appreciated everybody’s efforts.” The star illustrates collaboration at its best.

“Bob was always at the press, talking to the printers, cracking jokes, making humorous remarks. Made everybody happy. But at the same time was looking at the art coming off the press. When the proofing session was over and he was saying goodbye, you could really see tears in people’s eyes. They just loved having him around.”

Perhaps this is why the star, well-worn and faded, can still be found in the archives as part of Rauschenberg’s treasures.

Learn more about the Stoned Moon project.

Read all of Sidney Felsen’s oral history.

Explore the archives.

In summer 2017, the Archives will launch a Rauschenberg research travel fund, a new opportunity that will provide partial support for costs related to travel and living expenses that scholars may incur in order to do research at the Rauschenberg Foundation and its Archives.

APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation will provide one-time project-based support to scholars, academics, artists, and other researchers who can demonstrate a compelling need to use the archival materials onsite at the Foundation. To be eligible, applicants must:

• reside 50 miles or more away from the Foundation;
• not have received a grant or other funding from the Foundation in the past 3 years;
• be at the graduate level and above.

The application will be open to U.S.-based and international individuals. Please note, priority will be given to independent researchers or those affiliated with institutions with limited resources.

ELIGIBLE EXPENSES

The Rauschenberg research travel fund will provide partial support for research costs and can range from $200 - $2,000, depending on travel distance. Examples of eligible costs include:

• Travel costs including airfare and local transit
• Living expenses while researching including hotel and meals

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

Applications will open in summer 2017. Interested individuals can email archives@rauschenbergfoundation.org to request to be notified when application is available.

Robert Rauschenberg: Autobiography brings together 26 original works of art with 56 archival objects primarily on loan from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and centers on the artist’s monumental print, Autobiography, 1968. The exhibition will be on view at WCMA from March 17 through August 20, 2017.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has been processing the artist’s archives over the last two years and recently made them fully accessible to scholars. The  Foundation’s “Shuffle” program facilitates collaborations with college and university museums, in which works from the Foundation’s art collection are made available for exhibition and study. The WCMA project is the first ever to mine the archives for an exhibition and a college course. In the Art History/Museum class, Robert Rauschenberg Art, Archives and Exhibitions, developed and led by professor of art C. Ondine Chavoya and curator of contemporary art Lisa Dorin, Williams students researched the artist’s life, work, and the often blurry lines between the two. The students studied the history and theory of archives and how exhibitions make use of them, and spent two full days in the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives in New York working closely with Francine Snyder, the Foundation’s director of archives and scholarship.

Read more about the exhibition > 

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced today the selection of Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct the search for the Foundation’s next executive director, following the departure of Christy MacLear in December 2016. Russell Reynolds is one of the premier executive search firms and a leader in high-profile searches for arts-related institutions, including artist foundations, museums, and similar non-profits.

Christopher Rauschenberg, chairman and president of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, said: “We are highly enthusiastic and energized as the Foundation enters this next chapter in its development.  The Foundation’s Board of Directors look forward to working with the Russell Reynolds team of Laurie Nash, Katherine Armstrong, and Emily Rafferty as we engage in a wide-ranging and inclusive search.  This transition comes at a strong moment for us:  The Foundation is in the midst of a series of major retrospectives in London, New York, and San Francisco sharing Bob’s art and life with a globally expanding public, while also launching educational and philanthropic initiatives that we believe are needed now more than ever before.  We are therefore fully confident of attracting someone strongly committed to lead the Foundation as we continue to build upon and advance my father’s artistic and philanthropic vision and ideals.”

We were curious to hear more about Isaac Saunders, so we asked him a few questions to learn about his earliest memories of cooking and his inspiration for his career. Here is what we learned:

What is your first memory of cooking?

I can’t put a finger on my first memory of cooking as someone in my family was always doing something in the kitchen at almost all hours of the day when I was young.  However I do remember my first ‘wow’ moment I had with food.  I was maybe 8 or 9 years old and my dad had cooked a simple dish of chicken roasted with cardamom and yogurt and it blew my mind.  The chicken was juicy, the sauce was fragrant from the cardamom and acidic from the yogurt.  Still one of my fondest early childhood memories.  Unfortunately I have not been able to recreate that dish to date…

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Arlington, Virginia, right across the Potomac River from DC.  We had a small house, maybe 1200 sq ft, on a fairly large property for the area.  We had a large back yard and my mom and dad were big entertainers, inviting all sorts of people over for barbeques and cook outs and family dinners.  There were three other families within the same block that had kids my age.  It was a bit of a circus at times.  

Was anyone in your family a chef?

No one in my family was a professional by any means but both of my parents were great home cooks and versed in many different cuisines.  I grew up watching Julia Child and Jacques Pepin among many other old school cooking shows on PBS, learning about cooking alongside my parents.

Did you pursue any formal education in cooking?

Yes I did, I went to Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI for culinary school.

What is your favorite ingredient? What kind of food do you most enjoy cooking?

I can honestly say that I don’t have a favorite ingredient to cook with.  I like to work with anything interesting I can get my hands on.  Right now at the Residency I’m really loving the garden and all of the cool things we have planned for it as well as all of the amazing things it’s already kicking out.  I’m also really loving the access we have to amazing seafood here in Florida.  It’s a whole different set of fish and shellfish from what I’m used to, coming from Rhode Island.

What kind of food do you most enjoy eating?

It might sound a little cliche but anything that my Mom cooks.  I like simple, wholesome food… as long as someone else is cooking it!

Do you listen to music in the kitchen? If so, what are some of your favorite albums to cook to?

I haven't listened to music in the kitchen for most of my career but have started to more and more lately.  I’m pretty all over the place with my music preferences but have really been into my Amy Winehouse/Leon Bridges and Logic/Phora radio stations on Pandora lately.

What is the cookbook you refer to the most?

My absolute favorite cookbook ever is La Technique by Jacques Pepin.  It’s really an amazing book that highlights fundamentals in a way that no one else had really done until then.  However, I think the book that I refer to the most is called Coco, published by Phaidon.  It’s a really cool concept.  They took 10 of the best chefs in the world at the time and had them each give 10 people that they were excited about and had those chefs write about their restaurant/s and give an example of, and recipes for, a meal they would serve, whether it’s a tasting menu or a family style dinner. There’s something new to find every time I find myself in a new mood or phase.  

What are some of your other passions?

To be honest I’m sort of trying to figure that out again.  I’ve been so focused on my career in food that I haven’t really taken much time to do anything other than cook.  I used to be really involved in music, playing piano and guitar for quite a few years when I was younger.  I still pick up my guitar every once in awhile but nothing serious in a long time.  My real passion right now is for my amazing partner, Sophie Slesinger, who I have unfortunately had to be away from for quite a while now.  We are both very ambitious people working towards fairly similar goals yet we have very different paths, you know how that goes...

Have you traveled much? What was your favorite destination?

Unfortunately I haven’t spent very much time traveling.  I spent a few months in Israel during high school on a semester abroad program and did a quick trip to The Netherlands with my Dad.  I have my sights set on a few countries in southeast Asia as well as South Korea and Japan.  

What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone just starting to cook?

I honestly don’t think that I’ve been cooking professionally for long enough to be giving anyone advice on much of anything.  I’m still trying to figure out where I fit into this massive, complex and ever evolving industry.  If I were to say one thing it would be to find a mentor.  Someone that truly cares about you, not only professionally but personally.  It’s something that’s very very rare as this is an incredibly competitive industry, especially for entry level positions in higher quality kitchens.  However, once you do, if you do, stay with that person and learn everything from them that they are willing to teach.  The things that they may not be willing to teach you right away, observe.  Be aware of what’s happening around you and take notes.  I have been incredibly blessed to have had people in my career that have been willing train me and help me progress to where I am today.  If it wasn’t for them I’d still be flipping pink slime ridden burgers and asking “Fries with that?” in a hole in the wall somewhere.  Endless thanks to the five of them, Ben, Ed, Brad, Nemo, and Matt.

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Sharon Ullman has been named Acting Executive Director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation following the announcement last week that Christy MacLear, who has led the Foundation staff since 2010, will be taking a position at Sotheby's. 

"Sharon was one of the first people Christy hired and she has served us brilliantly for more than six years, most recently as Chief Operating Officer," said Christopher Rauschenberg, chairman and president of the Foundation and the artist's son.  "Sharon knows every aspect of the organization and we are delighted to have Sharon's leadership, her depth of experience, and her strong commitment to my father's artistic legacy and philanthropic vision available to us during this transition period."

Rauschenberg extended his best wishes to MacLear and thanked her for her years of service.  

"Christy was instrumental in taking the Foundation from our early days as a 'foundation start-up' to the mature organization that the Foundation is today," Rauschenberg said. "There are three key elements of what we do – increasing access to Rauschenberg art and scholarship, operating a residency program for artists in Florida, and leading philanthropic initiatives that connect culture and creativity with education, climate change, and other important issues. Christy has helped us define and expand our work in all of these areas. We are appreciative of the magnificent work she has done and the solid foundation she has helped us lay."

The Foundation's Board has appointed a three-member committee to oversee the transition to new staff leadership, including the search for a successor to MacLear.

Michael Straus, former chairman of the board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and a Rauschenberg board member since 2015, is chair of the transition committee. Christopher Rauschenberg and Elizabeth Glassman, president and CEO of the Terra Foundation for American Art and a Rauschenberg board member since 2013, also serve on the transition committee.

Robert Rauschenberg presents a holistic and multifaceted overview of the artist’s prolific career. In addition to key examples from Rauschenberg’s iconic “Combines” series, the exhibition showcases the artist’s innovative experiments with media appropriation, technology, and performance, as well as the global impact of his career, particularly through his close partnerships with artists across Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Tate Modern’s presentation begins with an examination of Rauschenberg’s early works, which were largely influenced by his formative years at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, a hub of artistic innovation and experimental practice in the 1940’s and early 50’s. During this period, Rauschenberg first experimented with photography and performance, created the monolithic White Paintings (1951), and incorporated found materialsand media images into his solvent transfer drawings.

The retrospective also highlights and explore Rauschenberg’s work in performance, which was at the core of much of his artistic output. His involvement with performance began with his participation, alongside choreographer Merce Cunningham, in composer John Cage’s Theatre Piece #1 at Black Mountain College in 1952. Throughout his career, Rauschenberg not only designed sets, costumes, and lighting for Cunningham and other choreographers such as Trisha Brown and Paul Taylor, but he also performed and choreographed his own works such as Pelican in 1963, and Elgin Tie in 1964.

By 1970, Rauschenberg left New York and established a home and studio on Captiva Island, Florida, which would become his primary residence until his death in 2008. He continued to work until the end of his life, producing historically significant works throughout his mid- to late career, including the Cardboards, 1971-72, Jammers, 1975- 76; Gluts, 1986-94; and Anagrams, 1995–97. Robert Rauschenberg at Tate Modern culminates with works from these later series, as well as ephemera from the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) – a project in which Rauschenberg traveled to ten countries outside the U.S. to collaborate with local artists in each region. ROCI became Rauschenberg’s primary preoccupation between 1984 and 1991 and was a tangible expression of his belief in art as a catalyst for global dialogue. Mounting an exhibition of his work in each country – often where freedom of speech and artistic expression had been suppressed – Rauschenberg’s aim was to inspire crosscultural exchanges and achieve a mutual understanding through art.

Today we are pleased to announce that the Donald Saff records on Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) have been opened for public research at the Foundation's offices in New York.

Announced in 1984, ROCI (pronounced “Rocky,” the name of the artist’s pet turtle) was inspired by Rauschenberg’s belief in the power of art as a catalyst for positive social change. Funded almost entirely by the artist, Rauschenberg traveled to countries around the world often where artistic experimentation had been suppressed, with the purpose of sparking a dialogue and achieving a mutual understanding through the creative process. Between 1985 and 1990, the project was realized in ten countries in the following order: Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, China, Tibet, Japan, Cuba, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Malaysia, and Germany with a final exhibition held in 1991 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The archival collection contains the records of Donald Saff, an artist, art historian, and educator, who worked as ROCI’s Artistic Director from 1984 to the project’s conclusion in 1991. As Artistic Director, Saff worked closely with Rauschenberg, and was critical to the conception and implementation of ROCI. Highlights of the collection, stored in over 35 document boxes, are planning documents, correspondence, travel schedules, exhibition and venue details, and international relations. Records within his collection speak to Rauschenberg’s long-term commitment to human rights and to the freedom of artistic expression.

To learn more about the collection and how to make an appointment please visit the Archives Collection page. 

Images from left to right: Catalogue cover, ROCI JAPAN, 1986. ROCI MEXICO, Museo Rufino Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo Internacional, Mexico City, 1985. Photo: Unattributed. Statement by Donald Saff introducing Rauschenberg and the ROCI project at the United Nations, New York, December 13, 1984. Rauschenberg with local artists, studio visit during ROCI USSR research trip, Odessa, Ukraine (formerly USSR), 1988. Photo: Unattributed. Detail from a statement by Donald Saff for ROCI CUBA, 1988. All materials from either Photograph Collection or Donald Saff records on ROCI. 

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Today we announce the open call for the Artist as Activist Fellowship. We invite creative professionals who use their practice to address the intersecting issues of racial justice and mass incarceration to seek up to $100,000 in support. Deadline to apply is December 7, 2016.

2015 was a remarkable year for Criminal Justice reform. From extensive media coverage to the passage of a national bill that limits mandatory sentences for nonviolent offenders, advocates who have worked tirelessly to end mass incarceration saw reform at the forefront of national conversation, illuminating the challenges and pitfalls of a system that has 25 percent of the world’s known prisoners, but only 5 percent of the global population –a disproportionate number of whom are black and brown. How can artists and creative professionals support this momentum and highlight the need for further and more aggressive reform on issues such as, but not limited to, immigrant detention, policing, and the privatization of prisons?

To learn more about this opportunity visit the How To Apply page >

Read more about the current Fellows working on mass incarceration >

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn more about this group of artists.

Today, we are excited to announce the recipients of its 2016 SEED grants. Today’s announcement marks the program’s expansion to three new cities/regions: Appalachia (Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee), Houston, and Santa Fe, as well as deepened support to organizations in Detroit and New Orleans.

Working with local nominators, the Foundation searches for groundbreaking, often artist-led organizations to support in order to position these innovators for long-term success—whether success means growing to a large-scale non-profit or intentionally functioning as a temporary intervention in their local cultural landscape. 

The 2016 SEED grantees will each receive $35,000 over three years to support their general operations along with access to opportunities for professional development and network building. The groups will also participate in a national gathering of all current and past SEED grantees at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida for a week-long conference.

2016 SEED Grantees

Alabama Song  / Houston, TX

Antena  / Houston, TX  

Blights Out / New Orleans, LA 

Campbell Culture Coalition / LaFollette, TN  

Carpetbag Theater / Knoxville, TN  

Complex Movements / Detroit, MI

EpiCentre Arts / Ermine, KY

Fringe Society / Detroit, MI

Handbarrow / Whitesburg, KY

New Orleans Black Mardi Gras Indian Cooperative / New Orleans, LA

Pelican Bomb / New Orleans, LA

Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative / Santa Fe, NM

The SEED program builds on Robert Rauschenberg’s legacy as an artist who was unafraid of risk—pushing the boundaries of his medium and working across disciplines long before it was standard practice—by supporting similar artists and organizations in parts of the United States that do not enjoy the same support as New York and California. 

Read full press release >

Watch video from the first SEED Summit in Captiva >

Visit the Artists-in-Residence page to learn more about the Residency 21 artists.

We are pleased today to announce the winners of This Art Is Your Art, an online competition that invited graduate and undergraduate students in the United States to create videos responding to works of art in the White House. The competition was hosted by the White House Historical Association, Artsy and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

A panel of eight renowned artists, educators, museum professionals and public figures judged the videos created by the students. The winners were selected on the basis of the creativity, relevancy and production value of their projects:

• Blair Katherine Betik, Southern Methodist University, Class of 2018, from Ennis, TX for her video on Albert Bierstadt’s Rocky Mountain Landscape (1870)
• Lauren Blankenship, Portland State University, Class of 2017, from Portland, OR for her video on Georgia O’Keeffe’s Mountain at Bear Lake – Taos (1930)
• Mekia “Machine” Denby, Columbia University, Class of 2018, from New York, NY for her video on Alma Thomas’ Resurrection (1966)
• Natalia Gabrielsen, University of Arizona Graduate School, Class of 2017, from Tucson, AZ for her video on O’Keeffe’s painting
• Qiong “Voyo” Wu, Sotheby’s Graduate School, Class of 2017, from New York, NY for her video on Robert Rauschenberg’s Early Bloomer [Anagram (A Pun)] (1998)

The winning videos will be on display at the White House Visitor Center, in a special installation organized by the Rauschenberg Foundation and the White House Historical Association, from July 15 to September 30, 2016.

Watch the winning videos for This Art is Your Art >

Read the full story >

Today we announced the ten artists and artist collectives selected for the 2016 Artist as Activist Fellowship—the Foundation’s two-year grant program designed to support independent artists and artist collectives who tackle important social challenges through their creative practice.  

With 2.2 million people currently in U.S. prisons or jails, the growth rates of this industry combined with the disproportionate number of people of color locked up, mass incarceration is one of the most pressing issues of our time. The Rauschenberg Foundation believes that artists are key partners in addressing these issues, and generating lasting social, political, and economic change.

The Foundation identified this year’s cohort through a competitive, nationwide call for proposals to U.S.-based artists. From an initial pool of 228, the following ten artists and artist collectives were selected to receive support ranging from $50,000 - $100,000 over two years:  

Maria Gaspar, Chicago

The Graduates, Louisiana

Titus Kaphar, New York City and New Haven

Los Angeles Poverty Department, Los Angeles

Jeremy Robins/Echoes of Incarceration, Brooklyn

Favianna Rodriguez, Oakland

Paul Rucker, Baltimore and Seattle

El Sawyer, Philadelphia

jackie sumell, New Orleans

Shontina Vernon, Seattle

Through various mediums such as film, performance, radio, public art, music, and theater, the 2016 Artist as Activist Fellows—many of whom have been previously incarcerated or impacted by the prison system—will share the stories and experiences of people directly affected by mass incarceration, and will each develop projects that address the intersections between race, class, and mass incarceration.

Join the conversation on art, activism, and mass incarceration with the Foundation via Twitter {@RRauschenberg }, Facebook {@RauschenbergFoundation }, and on Instagram {@rauschenbergfoundation } with the hashtags #ArtistasActivist, #RRgrants, and #RauschenbergFoundation.

Read the official announcement > 
Learn more about Artist as Activist >

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn more about the Residency 20 artists.

We are excited to announce that today the White House Historical Association, Artsy, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation launched This Art is Your Art, an online competition that invites graduate and undergraduate university students in the United States to engage with the artwork in the White House.

The competition encourages students to select a particular work of art in the White House collection from a gallery on Artsy’s website, and submit a three-minute video that focuses on the historical and artistic context of the work. Five winners will be selected by a jury comprised of eight renowned artists, educators, museum professionals, and public figures:

• Caroline Baumann, Executive Director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum;
• Melissa Chiu, Executive Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden;
• JiaJia Fei, Director of Digital, Jewish Museum;
• Agnes Gund, Chairman of the Board of MoMA PS1 and President Emerita of MoMA;
• William Kloss, Art historian and author of “Art in the White House”;
• Jan Krawitz, Professor of Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University;
• Earl A. Powell III, Director of the National Gallery of Art;
• and Kehinde Wiley, artist.

The winners will receive a trip to Washington, D.C. this summer where their videos will be shown at a special ceremony at the White House Historical Association. The deadline to submit is June 8, 2016.

This is the second collaboration between the Rauschenberg Foundation and Artsy, following the 2014 Emerging Curator Competition, to focus on the importance of actively engaging with and responding to works of art, and providing access to digital resources to students.

Read the full press release >

Visit the competition website > 

We are excited to announce a new initiative developed in collaboration with Sundance Institute that will support films and emerging media projects that tackle one of the most critical issues of our time - climate change and the urgent need for action. This initiative will identify and fund the creation of four projects, which focus on stories that address climate change with the goal of inspiring action. As part of this joint initiative, filmmakers and climate change experts will have the opportunity to come together for a Climate Change Lab in 2017 at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island.

This collaboration between the Foundation and Sundance brings together two organizations with deep connections to the environment.  Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive.

Risë Wilson, our Director of Philanthropy, said, “Sundance has a long history of nurturing new works of the highest caliber and giving them global reach. This commitment to artistic excellence, combined with an equally held concern for environmental sustainability shared by our founders makes this a natural partnership.”

The first project in this series, the documentary Catching the Sun, will premiere on Netflix on April 22, the 46^th annual Earth Day. Telling the stories of an unlikely group of workers and entrepreneurs in the U.S. and China, it brings attention to the global race to lead the clean energy future. The Foundation and Sundance Institute will also support the film’s public education campaign, which seeks to empower local communities across the country with the tools to advocate for energy efficiency.

Watch the trailer for Catching the Sun >

Learn more about our collaboration> 

Rising Waters Confab II will bring together the perspectives of architects, artists, scientists, and writers to address issues of climate change. Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn more about this diverse group of creative thinkers.

Chosen from a pool of over 600 artists, the 2015-16 Artist as Activist Fellows were selected for their commitment to tackling social and political issues through their creative process. Over the past year, these artists pursued new opportunities to advance their work and convened in Captiva for a week of networking and skill-sharing at the SEED Summit.

As they prepare to move ahead with year two of their fellowship, they reflect on how the Artist as Activist grant provided them with the resources to continue their work in addressing important global challenges:

CHEMI ROSADO-SEIJO | PUERTO RICO | EL CERRO

Chemi Rosado reports that the Fellowship allowed the EL Cerro community project to evolve and become self-sustainable. “The longer the project goes on, the more houses are painted which causes a chain reaction influencing more residents to become involved and thereby expanding the reach of the project into new areas of the barrio.” Read more about El Cerro and watch an interview with Chemi discussing his work >

We are pleased to announce a new Fair Use policy- the first to be adopted by an artist-endowed foundation–that will make images of Rauschenberg's artwork more accessible to museums, scholars, artists, and the public.

This new policy comes at an important moment for image rights, as more institutions are providing free and open access to their archives and digitized collections. Prior to 2015, the Rauschenberg Foundation, like many artist foundations and estates, safeguarded the use of images through licensing agents. Over time, the Foundation observed that the fear of violating copyright restrictions resulted in two unique challenges. First, due to the prohibitive costs associated with rights and licensing, many scholars and professors limit themselves to using freely available images in their lectures, presentations, and publications, which in turn can alter how art history itself is written and taught. Additionally, image licensing hinders the conversion of print publications to digital formats, due to the costs of obtaining rights for a second time.

Furthermore, given the costs and complexities around using images online and on social media, museums and other institutions are limited in the types of images they can post to their channels. As a result, individual users, not institutions, generate many images of artworks that exist in the digital realm. A lack of “official” images with correct captions and attributions leads to the perpetuation of incorrect information online and on social media.

In order to address these challenges and the changing landscape of image rights, the Foundation issued pilot licenses to a select group of museums in 2015, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and the Tate Modern.

Inspired by the increased use of Rauschenberg artwork images as a result of this pilot license to museums, the Rauschenberg Foundation has decided to expand its Fair Use policy to the public at large.

Read the full Fair Use policy >

Read more in The New York Times >

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn more about the Residency 18 artists. 

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, in partnership with Art in America, has launched a pilot writing fellowship to support arts and culture writing in regions of the country that are often underrepresented in the media. The goal of the fellowship program is to foster new discourse about arts and culture that reflects the diversity of the nation, and increase awareness of culturally rich enclaves often not identified as art centers.

For the inaugural group of fellows, five writers of diverse backgrounds were selected based on their demonstrated commitment to their cities and dedication to writing:

• Bill Arning has been the director of the Contemporary Art Museum Houston since 2009 
• Victoria Camblin is the editor and artistic director of the magazine Art Papers, which is based in Atlanta 
• Lynn Crawford is a fiction writer and art critic based in Detroit, whose most recent novel is Shankus & Kitto (2016)
• Kevin Killian lives in San Francisco and is a poet, author, editor and playwright of primarily LGBT literature 
• Cameron Shaw is the executive director and founding editor of Pelican Bomb, a website dedicated to sustaining the visual arts in New Orleans 

These writers, whose disciplines range from poetry to short fiction, will produce one long-form piece focused on arts and culture in their respective city for publication in Art in America this year.

Read the first essay, written by Kevin Killian, now available in the March 2016 issue of Art in America. 

Read Bill Arning's essay in the May 2016 issue of Art in America.

Read Cameron Shaw's essay in the October issue of Art in America

Read Victoria Camblin's essay in the December 2016 issue of Art in America

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is delighted to announce that the artist's The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece (1981–98) will be shown at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing from June 12–August 21, 2016. Comprised of approximately 190 parts and stretching over 1,500 feet, this work has been described as a self-contained retrospective, referring to significant developments throughout Rauschenberg's career.

While it will be the first time this monumental artwork has been seen in Asia, it is thirty years since Rauschenberg’s ROCI CHINA was presented at the National Art Gallery, Beijing. The artist first conceived of the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) while collaborating with master papermakers in Jingxian in 1982. A multi-year international project, ROCI aimed to foster cross-cultural understanding through art.

Read Press Release >

Read more in The Art Newspaper >

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 17 artists.

With support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Shirin Neshat created a series of portraits titled Our House is On Fire, a project that explored Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. The foundation is donating two limited edition prints from this series to thirty-three colleges and universities around the world.

​“Neshat's project embodies Rauschenberg’s own belief that art could change the dialogue for challenging international issues,” said Christy MacLear, executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “Our goal with this donation is to encourage dialogue about the portraits’ artistic, cultural, and political value while also creating an opportunity for academic departments to collaborate with school museums and galleries.”

The selected institutions submitted proposals on how they would incorporate the portraits into their curriculum in a way that was committed to using them to foster challenging conversations on a range of issues. A few innovative ideas include displaying the prints in Columbia Law School and using them as case studies for human rights issues, and hosting a panel discussion on Christianity, Islam, and Judaism at University of Pennsylvania.

See the full list of recipients >

The foundation is pleased to announce that Robert Rauschenberg: Anagrams, Arcadian Retreats, Anagrams (A Pun) will remain on view at Pace Gallery, 534 West 25^th Street, New York, until January 16, 2016. The exhibition showcases three powerful late series, begun in the mid-1990s, where Rauschenberg made digital color transfers from his own photographs, often taken during his extensive world travels.

The Anagrams series (1995-7) first premiered at Pace in 1996, in an exhibition organized by the gallery’s founder, Arne Glimcher. Glimcher’s reminiscences of Rauschenberg and the Anagrams exhibition at Pace are recorded in his newly released Oral History interview, conducted for the Robert Rauschenberg Oral History project in partnership with the Columbia Center for Oral History Research. 

The foundation is also delighted to share two short films of Rauschenberg created from outtakes of a film directed by Karen Thomas, Inventive Genius (1999). Shown for the first time at Pace Gallery with the current exhibition, Rauschenberg at Work documents the artist creating transfer works, while Rauschenberg at Pace records the artist and Glimcher discussing the installation of the original Anagrams exhibition in 1996. Footage courtesy of Film Odyssey, Inc. 

The foundation is pleased to announce a new licensing and cause marketing initiative, which will celebrate Rauschenberg’s role among twentieth century artists, as well as his activism and generosity.

Companies will partner with the foundation to use Rauschenberg’s art to develop products and create awareness of key social issues important to the artist, such as art and education, environmental protection, and global freedom of expression. 

The launch of this program will coincide with a series of Rauschenberg Retrospectives. The first exhibition will be held at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China (Summer 2016) followed by a major retrospective opening at the Tate Modern in London (Fall 2016), which will then travel to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Spring 2017), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Fall 2017).

Read full press release >

In the spring of 2015 twenty artists and scientists were invited by the Foundation to convene in Captiva, Florida for the first-ever Rauschenberg Residency focused on climate change.

Curated by the artists Buster Simpson and Laura Sindell, the "Rising Waters Confab" was designed to spark a productive dialogue amongst scientists, activists, artists, island dwellers, and others, and work toward addressing the realities of sea level rise.

Some of the concepts generated during the residency have served as catalysts for projects taking place at ArtCOP21, a global festival of cultural activity on climate change happening now through December 11 in 51 countries around the world. One of these events is L’Arctique est Paris (created and produced by Mel Chin, Gretel Ehrlich, Ed Morris, Helen Nagge) a film project with the message that "the Arctic drives the climate of the world."Another is a video installation, The Lost Defenders (created and produced by Orion Cruz and Mika Yamaguchi) about those on the frontlines of the struggle to protect what’s left of our environment. Back in Florida, the City of Hialeah presents CLIMA by Xavier Cortada.

In his summary document about the Confab Buster Simpson writes: The intent of the Rising Waters Confab was to further Rauschenberg’s lifelong approach to use art as a catalyst for social and environmental change, and to bring together artists, scientists, and other creative thinkers in this endeavor. This powerful new video filmed during Rising Waters Confab reveals how the Rauschenberg Residency serves as an effective platform for cross-disciplinary approaches to problem solving and the cultivation of ideas that become motivators for action. 

Watch the Rising Waters Confab video >

Learn more about Rising Waters Confab >

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of Robert Rauschenberg: ROCI Works from the National Gallery of Art and Robert Rauschenberg: Kyoto, Sri Lanka, and Thai Drawings at the Academy Art Museum (AAM), Easton, Maryland. Also on view at the AAM is the The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar, an exhibition curated by the 2014 winner of the Robert Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition, Nicole Bray. The Emerging Curator competition, a partnership between the foundation and Artsy, received proposals from Brazil, France, Iran, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All three exhibitions are on view at the Museum through March 6, 2016, and at Artsy. 

The Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI, 1984–1991), focused primarily on countries around the world where artistic dialogue had been strained or suppressed with the aim of promoting cross-cultural understanding through art. Bray’s exhibition envisions what a ROCI of today might look like, specifically examining how contemporary art utilizes technology to challenge and transcend geographic borders. Included are works by contemporary artists —Fikret Atay, Yto Barrada, Alfredo Jaar, Jawshing Arthur Liou, Pedro Reyes, Sebastian Schmieg, and Malgosia Woźnica—who share Rauschenberg’s belief in the power of art to catalyze positive social change. Also included digitally are Bray’s selections from an international call for student artists whose works share in the original spirit of ROCI. The emerging artists selected by Bray are Andrew Dines, Matthew Flores, Jeffrey Gomez, Ana Lucia Romero Rivero, and Ziyang Wu. 

The exhibitions are accompanied by a catalogue that includes contributions by AAM curator, Anke Van Wagenberg, Bray, and Donald Saff, the Artistic Director of ROCI. Saff’s interview for the Robert Rauschenberg Oral History project, conducted by the foundation in partnership with the Columbia Center for Oral History Research, can be found on the foundation website. On January 29^th at 6:00 pm. Saff will speak on his longtime collaboration with the artist as part of the Kittredge-Wilson lecture series at the AAM.

Shiree Teng facilitating a workshop during the 2014 SEED Summit. Video by Dancing Camera

Three years ago, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation launched SEED, a grant program to support groundbreaking projects in ten cities across the United States. Today the Foundation is pleased to announce that it will expand the SEED program to Appalachia, Houston, and Santa Fe in 2016, as well as deepen its support in Detroit and New Orleans. Moving into Appalachia and Santa Fe will allow SEED funding to reach more rural and indigenous communities, while deepening investment in Detroit and New Orleans will further fuel these cities as hotbeds for exceptional cultural practices.

Over the next several months, the Foundation will work with local nominators in each area to identify arts organizations or projects that may have been under the radar to date but are exemplars in pushing the boundaries of their medium, pursuing new operating models, or otherwise contributing to the innovation of their local cultural landscape.

The Foundation’s decision to expand the program follows the success of its pilot support to 36 cultural projects in Atlanta, Boise, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, and New Orleans. Grantees frequently point to the transformative impact of SEED’s angel investment as well as the ability to gather in Captiva with peers from across the country. Program participants have been able to build their administrative capacity, plan for the future, as well as form a lasting learning community. The program has also yielded artistic collaborations across regions. The next cohort of SEED grantees will be announced in Spring 2016.

To learn more about the SEED:

• Watch this video capturing last year’s SEED Summit in Captiva, FL
• Read this article on the evolution of the SEED grant program 
• Watch profiles of projects in Atlanta, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, New Orleans, Providence, and Portland
  • The Lucky Penny
  • The Dirt Place    
  • ELAB 
  • Performance Works NW  
  • Umoja Committee 
  • The Fishtank
  • Congo Square Preservation Society
  • FiveOne Experimental Orchestra 
  • Allied Media Projects 

Find out more about the most recent SEED grantees.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation joins Artsy in congratulating artists Andrew Dines, Matthew Flores, Jeffrey Gomez, Ana Lucia Rivero, and Ziyang Wu, whose works will be included in a digital format in the upcoming exhibition, The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar. The selection of artists was made by Nicole Bray, curator of the exhibition and winner of the 2014 inaugural Robert Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition. Through an international call for submissions on Artsy, students were asked to submit artworks that shared the ethos of the original Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI, 1984-91), to foster cross-cultural understanding and promote peace through art. Applicants came from Brazil, France, Iran, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The ROCI Road to Peace will be held at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland from December 5, 2015 – March 6, 2016 and will complement related exhibitions, Robert Rauschenberg: ROCI Works from the National Gallery of Art and Robert Rauschenberg: Kyoto, Sri Lanka, and Thai Drawings, both curated by Anke Van Wagenberg.

To learn more about the selected artists, please visit Artsy. 

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 15 artists.

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, Robert Rauschenberg: Anagrams, Arcadian Retreats, Anagrams (A Pun), Pace Gallery in Chelsea hosted a reception and reunion for the Rauschenberg Residency on Friday, October 23, 2015. In attendance were thirty of the total of 188 artists who have participated in the first three years of the residency, along with their guests and foundation board members and staff. Participants from all but three of the fifteen residencies and five pilots were represented. Board chair Christopher Rauschenberg warmly welcomed the group, and the foundation's senior curator, David White, provided remarks, contextualizing the three artwork series on view.

On what would have been Robert Rauschenberg's 90th Birthday, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is pleased to announce an exhibition of important late work by the artist opening at Pace Gallery. A public reception will be held tonight from 6 to 8 pm at 534 West 25th Street, New York. The exhibition will run from October 23 – December 12, 2015.

Entitled Robert Rauschenberg: Anagrams, Arcadian Retreats, Anagrams (A Pun), the exhibition includes works from three series made during the mid-1990s into the 2000s, where the artist revisited image transfer techniques which he first explored on a smaller scale in the 1950s and 1960s. Using water-soluble inkjet dyes on paper, plaster, and polylaminate surfaces, Rauschenberg made digital color transfers from his photographs. Revealing the artist’s global perspective, the images are often derived from the photographs he took during his extensive international travels. Imagery for the Arcadian Retreats is largely derived from photographs he took in Turkey when he attended the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in 1996. With images transferred manually using a burnishing implement, the artist’s hand is revealed, resulting in painterly and subtly lyrical works.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue with a new essay by Jonathan Fineberg. Archival footage of the artist at work during the mid-1990s will be shown at the gallery.

In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Gemini G.E.L., the Los Angeles-based artists’ print workshop where Rauschenberg produced more than two hundred and fifty editions over the course of thirty-five years, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation posted a new, illustrated oral history interview today with Sidney Felsen, Gemini’s cofounder and Rauschenberg’s longtime friend and collaborator.

Read the illustrated transcript and listen to an excerpt of the interview on the Rauschenberg Oral History Project page.

Gemini’s fiftieth anniversary is also marked by the opening of The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, through February 6, 2016. The exhibition showcases seventeen print series created at Gemini over the past five decades by seventeen artists, including Rauschenberg’s Hoarfrost Edition (1974).

Learn more about The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L. by visiting the exhibition page on the National Gallery website.

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 15 artists.

In the era of colorblindness…[r]ather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color as “criminals” and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal…We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.                  

—Michele Alexander, The New Jim Crow (2012)

Today the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced the next call for proposals to its Artist as Activist Fellowship program. Applying lessons from the inaugural round of fellowship applications, the foundation will use an alternating thematic frame to guide its open call for proposals. During the 2016 and 2017 fellowship cycles, the thematic frame is racial justice through the lens of mass incarceration. Artists with ambitious projects that tackle this critical issue are invited to seek up to $100,000 in support. Applications to the 2016 cycle are due 5:00pm (EST) on December 7, 2015.  

There are 2.2 million people currently in our nation’s prisons or jails₍₁₎,  1 million of whom are African American₍₂₎. This is a 500 percent increase over the past thirty years and if current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58 percent of all prisoners in 2008 even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the U.S. population₍₃₎. 

This constitutes an epidemic. 

What we witnessed in the past year—from the countless deaths at the hands of police foregrounded in the corpses of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and Tamir Rice to the resulting events in Ferguson and Baltimore—were not new phenomena. What we witnessed are the signposts of a national crisis as old as America itself. These events are symptomatic of a national economy that from inception has pivoted on a permanent underclass sustained by the design of racial hierarchy. A hierarchy expressed first through the colonization of indigenous nations and the enslavement of Africans, then manifested through Jim Crow laws, and when segregation became illegal, reconstituting itself through the criminalization of black and brown bodies…bottoming out their humanity and more often than not the full rights of American citizenship.

Mass incarceration intersects with access to affordable housing, wealth inequality and economic justice, voting rights, the detention of working-class people of color labeled as immigrants, and equitable educational policy. In fact it is having a particularly devastating effect on young people. Nationwide, African Americans represent 26 percent of juvenile arrests, 44 percent of youth who are detained, 46 percent of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58 percent of the youth admitted to state prisons₍₄₎.

It is exhausting to unravel the complexity of this issue, let alone to design ways to dismantle the social and economic structures that got us here.

And yet that is the task before us, one that requires an army of creative thinkers. If a new world is possible, it is the minds of artists, designers, culture bearers, and other creative professionals who will call it forth. We believe that at their best, art and artists are disruptive. The very nature of being a compelling artist is to generate new thinking and inspire new ways of being, whether through fostering empathy or by proposing radical alternatives to our current systems.

This year’s Artist as Activist Fellowship provides the opportunity for creative professionals who are committed to moving the dial on mass incarceration, and by extension racial justice, to seek a robust set of resources to advance their work. To learn more about the Fellowship program, including how to apply, click here.

1. The Sentencing Project (http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=10).

2. NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet (http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet).

3. The Sentencing Project (http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=10).

4. Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice via NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet (http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet).

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Artsy, and Nicole Bray, the 2015 winner of the Robert Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition, invite students enrolled at accredited institutions to submit artworks to be considered for inclusion in the inaugural Emerging Curator exhibition. The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar is inspired by the ethos of the original Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI, 1984–91)—to foster understanding and promote peace through art. The exhibition will be held at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland from December 5, 2015 – March 6, 2016 and will complement a related exhibition, Robert Rauschenberg: ROCI Works from the National Gallery, curated by Anke Van Wagenberg. The concurrent exhibition will include iconic works by Rauschenberg taken from the ROCI series, which have been graciously loaned by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

With his ROCI project, Rauschenberg traveled to ten nations around the world—Chile, China, Cuba, East Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Soviet Union, Tibet, and Venezuela. Exploring diverse cultural traditions, new materials, and local artistic practices, Rauschenberg used his art to shine a light on the commonalities and differences of human experience. The original intentions advocated by ROCI are as relevant today as they were in 1984—to share, understand, and celebrate difference. In the words of Rauschenberg, "a one-to-one contact through art contains potent peaceful powers." The ROCI Road to Peace: Experiments in the Unfamiliar will explore what a modern day ROCI might look like in today’s social, political, and technological landscape.

For more information and submission instructions, please visit artsy.net/emergingcurator. Submissions will be accepted from September 10 through September 24, 2015.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) is pleased to announce the third season of the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida.

Interdisciplinary in its focus, the Rauschenberg Residency is based on Rauschenberg's formative experience at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, and his belief that art can affect positive social change. Sited on the grounds of Rauschenberg's former home and studio on Captiva Island, the Residency maintains a robust commitment to the preservation of the land—its history and the stewardship of the natural environment. 

Each year the foundation appoints an anonymous group of artists, arts administrators, curators, and partner organizations to identify emerging and recognized artists and other creative thinkers. The foundation has, for the second year, invited an artist to organize a residency focused on the environment

Of the nine, five-week residencies this season, six include invited artists in a wide range of disciplines, while three have a particular focus: a family residency for artists with young children; a performance residency held in partnership with Danspace, New York; and the second Rising Waters Confab, to address climate change. 

2015–16 Residents

The 2015–16 participants represent diverse ages, geographies, and disciplines. They range in age from twenty-five to seventy-eight, and originate from fourteen states, and thirteen countries, including Botswana, Greece, Ireland, South Africa, and Vietnam. The array of disciplines includes: choreography, dance, interdisciplinary filmmaking, painting, photography, poetry, sculpture, and sound art.

September 21–October 23, 2015—Muriel Miguel Borst, Andries Botha, Maria Hassabi, Naomi Natale, Silke Otto-Knapp, Cauleen Smith, Tamara Staples

November 16–December 18, 2015—Susan Banyas, Will Cotton, LeBrie Rich, Louise Steinman, Lavinia Vago, Kate Wallich, Bill Will

January 11–February 12, 2016—Jane Hirshfield, Victoria Marks, Susan McAllister, Danny McCarthy, Mick O’Shea, Jasiri X, Bob Tannen, James Weingrod

February 29–April 1, 2016—Katie Aliprando, Caitlin Cherry, Ty Defoe, David Harper, Jill Sigman, Alex Smith, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Christopher Williams

April 18–May 18, 2016—Rising Waters Confab II organized by Buster Simpson

June 13–July 15, 2016—Family Residency: David Hartt, Ralph Lemon, Meleko Mokgosi, Chemi Rosado

August 1–September 2, 2016—Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Magdalena Campos-Pons, Josephine Halvorson, Steffani Jemison, Dinh Q. Lê, Neil Leonard, Harold Mendez, Sohrab Mohebbi, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Deanna Van Buren

September 19–October 21, 2016—Performance Residency with Wally Cardona in partnership with Danspace, New York.

November 14–December 16, 2016—Raul Ayala, Kevin Beasley, Jen Bervin, Fernanda Espinosa, Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson, Deborah Luster, Kate McNeely, Eiko Otake, Steve Roden, Rachel Schragis

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 14 artists. 

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 13 artists

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is in the early stage of processing our rich collection of archival materials. After learning about this exciting project, T: The New York Times Style Magazine visited the foundation to preview this comprehensive body of previously unexplored material on Rauschenberg’s life and career. View an exclusive interactive story on some of the treasures we have uncovered thus far at nytimes.com. Look for it in print in the June 12 issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. 

To learn more about our archival collection and obtaining access to it, please visit the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives Collections page.

The Rising Waters Confab, held at the Rauschenberg Residency (April 27–May 29, 2015), was inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s lifelong belief in the power of collaboration and the potential for art to bring about positive social change. To address climate change, the most pressing concern of our time, the Rising Waters Confab convened an interdisciplinary group of creative thinkers, including artists, scientists, activists, educators, and island dwellers at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island, Florida. Rising Waters Confab is the first time that the residency has been dedicated to a single theme.

During the five-week immersion, participants differed widely in their approach, background, and knowledge but were equal in their dedication to addressing climate change. “Confabbing”—or meeting, sharing meals, exploring the local environs, and making art—resulted in provocative and powerful collaborations and reflected a shared commitment to the issue. The Confab culminated in an Open Studio (May 27, 2015) when the public was invited to meet with the participants to view their individual and collaborative works in process. 

Rising Waters Confab was organized by Buster Simpson, Laura Sindell, and Anne Focke. Each of the twenty participants provided an invaluable contribution and made an inimitable imprint on the experience and the outcome of the residency. 

After a highly competitive process, in which nearly 500 organizations applied to the foundation’s call for proposals, nine organizations have been identified to receive support through the Climate Change Solutions Fund. Grant amounts range from $50,000 to $100,000 over two years for projects taking place in four countries: Micronesia, Peru, the United States, and Zambia.

From native seed collection and documenting the stories of Arizona farmers to developing a primer for artist-driven climate activism worldwide, the nine grantees represent a diverse collection of strategies for addressing global warming, each engaging with local and regional communities in ways that leverage cultural traditions and creative practices. 

To learn more about the inaugural grantees of the Climate Change Solutions Fund, please visit the Grants section of our website.  

The protection of the planet has been central to the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s mission since its founding by the artist in 1990. In 1991, through the sale of an edition and poster designed by Rauschenberg, the foundation raised  funds and greater awareness for the Earth Pledge that was announced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that same year. The foundation continues to uphold that original pledge “to make the earth a secure and hospitable home for present and future generations.”

For the next thirty days, in celebration of the forty-fifth anniversary of Earth Day, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation will highlight some of the grants and programs that extend the artist’s legacy as a champion of the environment. You can join the conversation by following the foundation on Twitter and Facebook. News items include:

Today the foundation is announcing $250,000 in grants to agencies working in Southwest Florida, including a grant to the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Fund, which focuses much of its work on the preservation of Florida’s fragile wetlands and other ecosystems. All of the awardees were identified through a partnership with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation to advance social innovation in the region. Southwest Florida is an area where Rauschenberg lived and worked for forty years and a place of ongoing investment for the foundation. To learn more about this partnership and the $250,000 in grants, you can read more here.

You can also read the newly posted Art in Context to learn more about Rauschenberg’s commitment to the environment in his art and activities. Among the highlighted artworks is Rauschenberg’s Earth Day poster, created for the first annual Earth Day on April 22, 1970, to benefit the American Environment Foundation in Washington, D.C. The poster is the first of many editioned works that the artist produced to support the social and political causes most important to him.

This Monday, April 27, 2015, will mark the beginning of a month-long gathering of artists, scientists, engineers, and activists at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island, Florida. Entitled Rising Waters Confab, the meeting aims to spark new thinking and to influence civic will toward finding and spreading solutions for the rising waters of climate change. Participants will contribute to a blog that captures key themes and ideas.

Over the next month, the foundation will share more highlights of its work to support a healthy, sustainable planet, including announcing the inaugural grantees of its Climate Change Solutions Fund, a new initiative that spurs the use of cultural and civic engagement to advance solutions to global warming.  

During his residency, Tijuana-based artist Marcos Ramirez printed the front page of a different international newspaper each day for thirty-three days and screen-printed imagery that he had photographed around Captiva. Later, he will add text to create a personal journal that is juxtaposed against his worldview. Inspired by Rauschenberg’s legacy of printmaking and collage, Ramirez chose to integrate similar techniques into his work during the residency.

Other artists in Residency 11 were also influenced by the ways in which Rauschenberg worked. David Martine and Shawne Major experimented with screen printing with their individual art practices; Martine created three murals as he worked directly in Rauschenberg’s former studio, and which enabled him to step back in time to imagine Rauschenberg’s experimentation process; and Major also found the residency invigorating and plans to incorporate Rauschenberg’s methods into her next mixed-media works.

Catherine Chalmers arrived in Captiva with the idea to make screen prints but found it led to something else: “I brought several images for this purpose and when printing them into black and white and adding one color during the preparation, I inadvertently discovered an exciting way to create digital paintings. Although this finding led me away from making screen prints, I would not have discovered this new process without trying to manipulate the images for the screen. I am completely thrilled to have found a new method in which to work with my vast and beloved body of photographs.”

James Leary came to the residency in early March with a plan to complete the first draft of a screenplay, which he achieved. Yet two unforeseen projects also emerged: A series of 300 drawings and what turned out to be, in his words, “a complete surprise,” learning the process to create cyanotypes and executing a series of prints in collaboration with the art critic Charlie Schultz. Schultz also completed a writing project on photography and industry in America.

Photographers Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun finally found the time to print their Kodachrome slides that had been waterlogged during Hurricane Katrina, and which they had kept in a freezer that was found on the street to preserve them.

Two artists during the residency used elements that had washed ashore. Diane Schenandoah sculpted driftwood and wood from Australian pine and Sea Grape trees. Charles Lindsay used the carcasses of horseshoe crabs in a sculpture piece for an upcoming exhibition. He noted, “The re-discovery of horseshoe crabs is significant by adding a perfect symbol species to the part of my artistic mission that considers nonhuman intelligence and vast time scales. My challenge continues to be about bringing nature, technology, and the nature of existence into the contemporary art domain. The pace and arc of this project speaks well to adaptation and to responding to a location and situation, which is a high compliment to the residency itself.”

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about Residency 12 and Rising Waters Confab.  

After a highly competitive process, in which more than 600 artists applied to the foundation’s call for proposals, the inaugural cohort of Artist as Activist Fellows, as well as Travel and Research Grantees, has been selected. Four artists and two artist collectives will receive direct grants ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 over two years, along with access to opportunities for professional development. Additionally, nine other socially engaged artists will receive grants ranging from $2,500 to $8,500 to pursue opportunities for travel and/or research related to their activist practice. All told by the first half of 2015, the Rauschenberg Foundation will have invested $650,000 in fifteen independent artists and collectives applying their creative practice to the public sphere, along with ten organizations that are exemplary pioneers in supporting artists who work this way.

You can learn more about the Artist as Activist program’s Two-Year Fellows or the Travel and Research Grantees by visiting the Grants section of our website. To read the press release click here.

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 11 artists.

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Executive Director Christy MacLear joined First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House on Tuesday, February 10, to celebrate the installation of Rauschenberg’s Early Bloomer [Anagram (A Pun)], 1998. Also included in the White House Dining Room are works by artists Anni Albers, Josef Albers, and Alma Thomas. The installation is now open to the public. 

This work, part of a series Rauschenberg made using digital color transfers, was donated in honor of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2011. It was first unveiled during the Celebration of American Art presentation, hosted by Michelle Obama at the White House on June 5, 2013. Early Bloomer [Anagram (A Pun)] is one of the first works of contemporary art to be displayed in the public rooms of the White House. 

Also on Tuesday, former Vice President Walter Mondale attended the Open Studio at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island, Florida. During his visit to the residency, Mondale enjoyed presentations by vocalist Somi, musician Hervé Samb, performance artist Laurie Anderson, and actor Cheryl Lynn Bruce, and he viewed works by visual artists Manal AlDowayan, Kim Faler, Ann Hamilton, Brad Kahlhamer, Mario Martinez, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Visit the Artists in Residence page to learn about the Residency 10 artists. 

The Lab School of Washington, with support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, presents The Power of Art Conference, April 16–18, 2015: This is Your Brain on Arts.

In its twenty-first year, the conference includes a town hall with national voices in the arts, a day of workshops led by teaching artists at The Lab School, a fully arts-based school for students with learning differences, and workshops at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Participants will learn how to advocate for the arts, integrate the arts into core courses, and incorporate new practices into their teaching. The Lab School will provide for the programming costs for the three days, hotel accommodations, and meals. Admission to the conference is competitive and limited to forty visual and performing arts educators across the United States. Applications are open now through February 1, 2015.

Click here for more info and to apply.

For information about RRF’s history of support for The Lab School and The Power of Art Conference, click here.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, in partnership with Artsy is pleased to announce that Nicole Bray, a student at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, has won the inaugural Robert Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition. With support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Bray will receive a fellowship to mount a Rauschenberg exhibition in New York.

Bray’s winning proposal was inspired by the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI) project, which she argues remains as relevant today as when Rauschenberg first conceived of it in 1984. Click here to learn more about ROCI.

Read full press release

Beginning November 3, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation used its Captiva Campus to host eighty-five artists, entrepreneurs, community organizers, and social innovators from across the United States, and who have received support through the foundation’s SEED Grant program. The inaugural SEED Summit, which is intended to become an annual event at Captiva, brought these arts professionals together for a one week meeting to build skills, share knowledge, and form ongoing relationships. 

Download Full Press Release

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Francine Snyder as the Foundation’s first Senior Archivist. This inaugural position builds upon the newly launched website to make Rauschenberg's archives accessible to students, scholars, and the public. Snyder will be integral in providing materials for the future Rauschenberg catalogue raisonné. In addition, she will be responsible for establishing educational partnerships globally, identifying future grants for archival scholarship, and collaborating with other artists’ archives. Previously, Snyder was the Director of the Library and Archives at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Earlier this year, she was selected for the 2014 Archives Leadership Institute (ALI) and has written widely on archives and technology.

VOTE NOW for your favorite exhibition proposal! Follow @Artsy on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Google+ and like/share/comment on posts to vote. You can also share your favorite proposal on social media with #EmergingCurator.

Finalists' posts are now featured on artsy.net/emergingcurator.

The Finalists

In collaboration with curators from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the winner will have the opportunity to curate an exhibition at their campus art gallery with artworks from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation collection. The panel of judges includes John Elderfield, Branden W. Joseph, Shirin Neshat, Christopher Rauschenberg, and Sarah Roberts, who determined the four finalists. The winner is chosen by you. Voting ends November 18, 2014 11:59 pm EST (Eastern Standard Time). 

Artsy received 138 thought-provoking exhibition proposals from four continents, 22 countries, and 78 cities, such as Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Moscow, and more. It was a tough decision for the judges to choose the finalists, and we would like to recognize seven exceptional proposals as Honorable Mentions. Congratulations to all of the students for participating!

Honorable Mentions 

New Grant Program, Calls for Proposals Addressing Climate Change 

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced today the creation of the Climate Change Solutions Fund to support cross-disciplinary responses to global warming, issuing an open call for grant proposals from organizations whose work matches the Fund’s objectives.

The Climate Change Solutions Fund pushes back against the “doom and gloom” narrative that emphasizes impending disaster or frames the scale of the problem as insurmountable. Instead the new grant program seeks projects that facilitate new, sustainable ways of being and living. That may translate into pragmatic tactics like advancing alternative energy sources or it may be more adaptive strategies like developing new economic systems. For more information about the grant’s guidelines and requirements, including how to register for an application webinar, visit our Apply Now page. 

Projects of particular interest are those that apply a systemic lens to the root causes of global warming; enroll the leadership of frontline communities most vulnerable to the impact of climate change; push for broad based civic engagement and community action; and wherever possible leverage the value artists and culture bearers bring to processes for devising and deploying practical solutions to this global crisis.

Read full press release

For nearly forty years, Robert Rauschenberg maintained a home and studio in Captiva, Florida. More recently, the foundation has sustained a commitment to the region by converting those facilities into a dynamic artist residency program, as well as by making a number of grants to area non-profit organizations. In fact, since 2012 the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has invested approximately $3.2 million into the local economy of Southwest Florida (not including grants). It is in this spirit that the foundation recently announced a partnership with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation to resource local non-profits who are working to improve the quality of life of Southwest Florida residents. Today marks the launch of that new grant program. Interested applicants can learn more by visiting www.floridacommunity.com or contacting Jacqueline Ehlers at JEhlers@floridacommunity.com or by phone at 239-274-5900.  

I like seeing people using materials that one’s not accustomed to seeing in art. That has a particular value. New materials have fresh associations, physical properties and qualities that have built into them the possibility of forcing you or helping you do something else.
—Robert Rauschenberg

In collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Gagosian Beverly Hills is pleased to announce an exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s works on metal of the 1980s and 1990s. This will be the first major presentation of his work on the West Coast since MOCA’s acclaimed traveling exhibition of the Combines in 2006.

Rauschenberg’s protean outlook ushered in a new era of postwar American art in the wake of Abstract Expressionism with a free and experimental approach that drew inspiration from conceptual, materialist, and gestural precedents. His inventive use of discarded materials and appropriated images eviscerated distinctions between medium and genre, abstraction and representation, while his “flatbed picture plane,” which absorbed found objects into the realm of paintings, forever changed the relationship between artwork and viewer.

“Works on Metal” traces Rauschenberg’s obsession, beginning in the mid-1980s, with the potential of metal. Exchanging canvas for flat sheets of metal mounted directly to the wall, he worked in consequent series using aluminum, brass, copper, and bronze, harnessing the natural hues and reflections of each. He then juxtaposed their intrinsic qualities with secondary processes, from the application of acrylic and enamel paints and silkscreened photographic images to his fine-tuning of chemical reactions and manipulation of industrial scrap and refuse.

For his prescient project of global diplomacy known as ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, 1984–91), Rauschenberg worked and exhibited in eleven countries including Chile and Cuba, silkscreening photographic images taken during his extensive travels onto huge sheets of copper and stainless steel. Drawing upon this bountiful image bank, his ongoing investigation of painting on metal would prove to be one of the most inventive periods of his career, taking on ever new inflections as he traveled to Mexico, Germany, Tibet, the former U.S.S.R., Venezuela, and other locations. In the Urban Bourbon series (1988–96), reflective depths overlap with fragmented photography and gestural brushwork; in the Borealis paintings (1988–92), chemicals and ammonium salts were applied to brass, copper, and bronze sheets to achieve corrosive effects; in the steely Night Shades (1991), acids were used to rapidly tarnish the mirrored and brushed aluminum surfaces.

Parallel to his works on flat metal surfaces, Rauschenberg collected discarded automotive parts, gas station signs, and other scrap materials, which he manipulated into both freestanding and wall-mounted sculptures; the so-called Gluts (1986–89/1991–94) echoed the Combines in their reconfiguration of found objects. Rauschenberg referred to the Gluts, which he continued to produce after the seven-year ROCI. tour, as “souvenirs without nostalgia;” he aimed to create art that was “as fresh, strange and unpredictable as what’s going on around you.” In the conceptual and material breadth of the metal works, Rauschenberg fulfilled the partial relinquishing of authorship, allowing art to integrate with the mess of life.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Joachim Pissarro.

The foundation, in partnership with Artsy, is hosting a competition for undergraduate and graduate students worldwide.  Win the opportunity to mount a Rauschenberg exhibition at your campus.

The competition intends to foster a new generation of curators by providing online access to digital resources and collections, as well as to explore new curatorial perspectives, scholarship, and dialogues on art. The competition launches today, September 22, 2014, and closes October 20, 2014. Please visit Artsy.net for full guidelines to participate, and visit the Artist section of our website to begin your research and explore Rauschenberg's life and work in depth. 

Today, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced the launch of an open call for proposals for artists whose work intersects with activism. Up to $100,000 in project support and up to $10,000 in travel and research grants will be provided to artists and collectives working to address pressing challenges facing societies in the U.S. and beyond. The term artist has been broadly defined to include artists of all disciplines, architects, cultural workers, designers, master craftsmen, musicians, performers, photographers, storytellers, cultural organizers, etc. To read the press release click here, or visit the Artist as Activist program page in our Grants section.

Shuffle makes available selections from the Rauschenberg Foundation art collection for exhibition in art institutions throughout the United States. Joining philanthropic initiative with the goal of nurturing the artist’s legacy, Shuffle loans are underwritten by the Foundation. Projects can range from a focused presentation of a single artwork to exhibitions of numerous works. Committed to audience development and new scholarship, the program seeks to connect with university and regional museums. Shuffle encourages dialogue with partnering institutions’ collections.

The program draws its name from Rauschenberg’s Synapsis Shuffle (1999), a painting comprised of fifty-two parts, as in a deck of cards. The work is realized when collaborators choose and assemble at least three and no more than seven panels, generating myriad variations. Every participant who arranges and re-arranges the parts is credited as a composer of the work. Past players include musician David Byrne, artist Chuck Close, choreographer Merce Cunningham, curator Walter Hopps, and gallerist Ileana Sonnabend.

In the spirit of its namesake, the program invites collaboration with partnering institutions to start conversations, continue arguments, and foster new perspectives. The proposition: take Rauschenberg’s works as inspiration, counterpoint, or at their most basic, as objects of contemplation and deep looking. Shuffle is both a tribute to the artist’s life and oeuvre as well as a venture to cultivate his public.

Please visit the newly launched website: shuffle.rauschenbergfoundation.org

Featuring the current exhibition, Rauschenberg: Collecting & Connecting, on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University through January 11, 2015: shuffle.rauschenbergfoundation.org/exhibitions/nasher/

Rauschenberg: Collecting & Connecting presents a dialogue between selections from the Nasher Museum's collection and over thirty artworks on loan from the Rauschenberg Foundation.

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has partnered with Artsy to create an Emerging Curator Competition for graduate and undergraduate students world-wide.  Our objectives are to increase access to art and archival resources digitally; to create a program to benefit aspiring curators and their institutions; and to foster new scholarship. In keeping with that vision, the competition encourages a new generation of curators to use digital tools to bring new views and ideas to global audiences.  

The jury for the Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition is comprised of five renowned artists, curators, and scholars—John Elderfield, Branden Joseph, Shirin Neshat, Christopher Rauschenberg, and Sarah Roberts—who will evaluate exhibition proposals that are related to the work of Robert Rauschenberg either presented on its own or juxtaposed with the work of other artists and artworks. Participants will submit exhibition proposals on Artsy.net, choosing from images selected by the Rauschenberg Foundation and from the 40,000 images provided by Artsy’s 230 museum and institutional partners, including the British Museum, Fondation Beyeler, J. Paul Getty Trust, Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and others. In-depth research and archival materials will be accessible via the new Rauschenberg Foundation website and the SFMOMA Rauschenberg Research Project.  

In the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg, the jury seeks proposals that make unexpected connections and ponder new lines of questioning. In a career that spanned more than fifty years, Rauschenberg continually pushed the boundaries by using a multidisciplinary approach and defying expectation. His commitment to innovation and his fearless approach to art are characteristics that the jury will evaluate in the online exhibition proposals.

The judges will select three finalists whose proposals will be featured on both the Artsy.net and the Rauschenberg Foundation website and the winner will be selected by the general public through online voting. The winner will be awarded: 1) a letter of award signed by the panel of judges; 2) the winning curatorial proposal will be designed as an online exhibition on Artsy.net; and 3) a curatorial fellowship and honorarium enabling the winner to select works from the Rauschenberg Foundation Shuffle artwork lending library to curate an exhibition at the winner’s academic institution.

Central to the mission of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is fostering the legacy of the artist’s work and his long-term commitment to art education by providing broad public access to art. The foundation strives to encourage students and aspiring curators to actively engage with the work of Rauschenberg, his collaborators, and the artists who have been inspired by him. With the Robert Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition, the foundation seeks to nurture Rauschenberg scholarship and to expand the study of art through current digital means. When the new Rauschenberg Foundation website launches in late summer, students, aspiring curators, and the general public will have unprecedented access and information on Rauschenberg’s artwork and archives.

Artsy (Artsy.net) is a free online resource for learning about and collecting art, and it will host the competition as part of its ongoing mission to increase education and public access to art from around the world.

New York—The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation today announced that six major museums across the United States have acquired nine works by artist Robert Rauschenberg through the foundation’s Gift/Purchase Program.

This one-year program was designed to expand public access to and awareness of the artist’s work by offering museums a rare opportunity to acquire artworks from the foundation’s holdings through equal parts gift and purchase.

“When Rauschenberg’s work transferred to the foundation, we committed ourselves to ensuring the broadest access possible to his art by helping to place works in museum collections,” said Christy MacLear, executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. “These pieces represent the strength of Rauschenberg’s work in the 1970s and 1980s and further his legacy of continued artistic innovation. We could not be more pleased to have them acquired by some of America’s finest institutions.”

The six institutions that have acquired the artworks are:

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  
  • Bande de Sureté (Cardboard), 1971
  • Vow (Jammer), 1976
• The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
  
  • Mexico / Park (ROCI), 1985
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York
  
  • Nabisco Shredded Wheat (Cardboard), 1971
  • Gull (Jammer), 1976
  • Stop Side Early Winter Glut, 1987
• The New Orleans Museum of Art
  
  • Melic Meeting (Spread), 1979
• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
  • Rosalie / Red Cheek / Temporary Letter / Stock (Cardboard), 1971
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
  
  • Untitled (Venetian), 1973

The artworks acquired include key examples of some Rauschenberg’s most important series: Cardboards, Venetians, Jammers, Spreads, Gluts, and ROCI works. Created across two decades, these works exemplify the diversity of the artist’s materials and activities.

• Cardboards investigate the aesthetic potential of a mundane material.
• Venetians are a sculptural series evoking the atmosphere of the Italian city.
• Jammers, inspired by a trip to India, celebrate the sensual qualities of fabric.
• Spreads combine printed imagery and found objects in large-scale tableaux.
• Gluts address the socioeconomic circumstances underlying the detritus used here as sculptural material.
• Rauschenberg's humanitarian project ROCI (Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange) traveled to eleven countries from 1984 to 1991 to promote world peace through artistic dialogue with local cultures.

“Having worked with Rauschenberg and his art for more than thirty years,” said David White, senior curator for the foundation, “it is enormously gratifying that these six museums selected such representative works for their collections. An entirely new generation of museum visitors will have the opportunity to experience the breadth of Rauschenberg’s work as I have.”

In addition to the Gift/Purchase Program, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has lent artworks to forty-six museums and exhibitions around the world; initiated a “Loan Bank” pilot program with two university museums that connect painting, sculpture, and performance-based artworks with curricula development; and donated more than a hundred works by other artists from Rauschenberg’s personal art collection to leading museums and cultural centers, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Walker Art Center, the National Gallery of Art, and the New York Public Library for Performing Arts.