Robert Rauschenberg

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York (LC #D-8)
Alice M. Denney, Washington, D.C.
Sotheby's, New York, November 10, 1993, Lot 19
Duncan MacGuigan, New York (acquired from the above)
Christie's, New York, May 9, 2006, Lot 73
Private Collection, New York and Connecticut
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in November 2010

Washington, D.C., National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution; New York, Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Robert Rauschenberg, October 1976 - January 1978, cat. no. 58, p. 97, illustrated
New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Guggenheim Museum SoHo and Guggenheim Museum at Ace Gallery; Houston, The Menil Collection, the Contemporary Arts Museum and The Museum of Fine Arts; Cologne, Museum Ludwig; Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective, September 1997 - February 1999, cat. no. 96, p. 126, illustrated in color
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; London, Barbican Art Gallery, Dancing around the Bride: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp, October 2012 - June 2013 (Philadelphia only)

Judith E. Bernstock, "A New Interpretation of Rauschenberg's Imagery," Pantheon International Annual Art Journal, Munich, 1988, p. 156, illustrated

This drawing is in excellent condition. The paper is hinged at intervals on all four sides to a slightly larger sheet of paper board, dating from the time of execution as evidenced by drips of blue watercolor at the bottom edge of both sheets. There is a thin sheet of tissue paper between the work and the paper board. There are pinholes at all four corners. The collage pieces appear well adhered. The paper has very slightly yellowed over time as is consistent with the nature of the medium and the age of the work. The work is framed in a blonde wood strip frame under UV filter and anti-reflective Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Robert Rauschenberg was a quintessential pioneer and maverick of artistic expression. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and performance, he continuously challenged the boundaries of different mediums, often combining several techniques into one hybridized work of art. The title of the present work alludes to the avant-garde composer John Cage, Rauschenberg's kindred spirit and friend whose radical compositions redefined modern music and profoundly influenced the cultural milieu of his time. An exhibition currently at New York's Museum of Modern Art, titled There Will Never Be Silence, celebrates Cage's role as a pivotal collaborater and inspiration among the visual artists of his day, Rauschenberg chief among them.  The two met in 1951 at Rauschenberg's first solo show at the Betty Parsons Gallery, and Rauschenberg subsequently studied at Black Mountain College in the early 1950s where Cage lectured. The duo collaborated on many projects, including the famous Automobile Tire Print of 1953 in which Cage drove a car over a long strip of drawing papers while Rauschenberg applied black paint to the tire, resulting in a thick black impression which rolled out like a Chinese scroll.

The 1950s marked a crucial decade in Rauschenberg’s prolific career with the development of his acclaimed Combine series where he radically altered painting through the incorporation of sculpture and collage. Appropriation and assemblage became a core aesthetic language in his work, which he adapted in the late 1950s to works on paper with a series of “transfer” drawings. Executed early in the series in 1958, Cage is a superb example which fuses physical collage and appropriated imagery. In the late 1950s Rauschenberg had begun to co-opt mass media imagery printed in newspapers, magazines and books by soaking the images in a solvent. He then pressed the surface of the printed paper against the sheet of paper for his drawing in a process akin to traditional methods of plate printing. With a dry pointed instrument, Rauschenberg “drew” back and forth across the pressed papers, affecting the final transfer. The result was a reversed and ghostly shadow of the original image, and in the case of Jacques-Louis David’s Portrait of Madame Récamier from 1800, a haunting representation of a familiar museum postcard.

Cage is a prime example of Rauschenberg’s masterful technique in which process and subject become one. There is immediacy in his “transfer” drawings and the captured imagery encapsulates the time of its production. A reflection on the surrounding visual environment, Cage melds a photo-montage of visual imagery with physical additive collage into a rich, textured surface. Strokes of expressionistic white, yellow and blue pigment merge with pasted scraps of torn paper interspersed with random images that emerge from the surface like a mirage. The domestic paper plate takes the form of a rising sun and the perfectly geometrical orb contrasts with the gestural brush strokes. Rauschenberg fused seemingly disparate elements with new meaning and connotations, resulting in a nuanced image which juxtaposed the detritus of modern life with high art imagery in an indeterminate manner akin to the unique music of his friend, John Cage.