Robert Rauschenberg

"Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in the gap between the two.)" ―Robert Rauschenberg

The early 1950s, when Robert Rauschenberg launched his career, was the heyday of the heroic gestural painting of Abstract Expressionism. Rauschenberg challenged this tradition, inventing new interdisciplinary models of artistic practice that shaped the decades to come. Published in conjunction with this century's first retrospective of this defining figure in postwar art, this richly illustrated catalog reframes Rauschenberg’s widely celebrated Combines (1954–64) and silkscreen paintings (1962–64) in fresh ways. It also illuminates lesser-known periods within Rauschenberg’s career, including his work of the early 1950s and that from the late 1960s onward, now compelling and prescient to contemporary eyes.

Sixteen short essays by eminent scholars and emerging new writers focus on specific moments throughout Rauschenberg’s career, exploring his creative production across an extraordinary range of media and following him on his travels around the globe. Integrating new scholarship, documentary imagery and archival materials, Robert Rauschenberg is the first comprehensive catalogue of the artist’s career in 20 years, an important contribution to American cultural and intellectual history and a necessary volume for anyone interested in contemporary art.

Over the span of six decades, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) worked in an astonishing range of mediums including painting, sculpture, prints, photography and performance. Working alone and in collaboration with artists, dancers, musicians and writers, Rauschenberg produced a vast body of work that set the course for art of the present day.

Leah Dickerman is Director of Editorial & Content Strategy at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Achim Borchardt-Hume is Director of Exhibitions at Tate Modern, London.

Yve-Alain Bois is Professor of Art History at the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University.

Andrianna Campbellis a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she specializes in American art in the modern and contemporary period.

Hal Foster is American art critic and historian.

Mark Godfrey is Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate Modern, London.

Hiroko Ikegami is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies at Kobe University and specializes in post-1945 American art and its global impact.

Branden Joseph is Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

Ed Kr?ma is Lecturer in History of Art at the School of World Art and Museum Studies, University of East Anglia and co-editor of Enclave Review.

Michelle Kuo is Professor in the History, Law, and Society program at the American University of Paris on issues related to race, punishment, immigration and the law.

Pamela Lee is Carnegie Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at Yale University.

Emily Liebert is an American author. Her most recent novels are You Knew Me When (2013), When We Fall (2014), Those Secrets We Keep (2015) and Some Women (2016), all with Penguin Random House and Pretty Revenge (2019) with Simon & Schuster.

Richard Meyer is Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History at Stanford University.

Helen Molesworth is former Chief Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Kate Nesin is an art historian based in New York.

Sarah Robertsis Assistant Professor of Information Studies at the University of California Los Angeles.

Catherine Wood is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Performance at Tate Modern."