From Booklist
Rauschenberg has been so prolific that few critics have a handle on his vast output or the sensibility and ideas behind it. Enter intrepid art historian Mattison, who observes Rauschenberg hard at work in his enormous, immaculate, high-tech Florida studio, where this master of intuition and spontaneity, who is actually as organized and efficient as an emergency room physician, works with a crew of energetic assistants at a breathless pace. Collaborations and an atmosphere conducive to the unexpected are crucial to Rauschenberg's "unfettered creativity," Mattison realizes, and the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images that characterize Rauschenberg's work reflects his keen interest in the flux and multifariousness of life. Mattison also analyzes Rauschenberg's 20-year collaboration with choreographer Trisha Brown, parses Rauschenberg's attunement to urban life and fascination with space exploration, ponders the aesthetic implications of the artist's dyslexia, and chronicles Rauschenberg's wildly ambitious and highly controversial project entailing travel to and the making and exhibiting of art in 11 countries. Mattison's unique approach greatly enhances our appreciation for this taken-for-granted artist and his phenomenally complex art. Donna Seaman
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Book Description
Robert Rauschenberg, one of the most prolific and influential artists of the postwar period, has created an astonishing variety of works during a career spanning more than fifty years. To illuminate the meaning of Rauschenberg's art and the reasons behind his artistic choices, Robert Mattison in this book focuses closely on a small selection of the artist's projects. Mattison offers an interpretation of Rauschenberg's output that is both original and uniquely insightful, based on extensive research and first-hand observation of the artist at work in his studio. Like Rauschenberg's own work, the book ranges across a variety of disciplines. Mattison relates the artist's output to the visual arts, politics, technology, dance, urban theory, and other intriguing contemporary issues. The book examines Rauschenberg's working process, the effect of his dyslexia on his art, his seminal Combine paintings of the 1950s, fascination with the "space race," and collaboration with well-known choreographer Trisha Brown. A final chapter explores the art Rauschenberg exhibited in Chile during the dangerous and repressive rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Language Notes
Text: German, English
About the Author
Robert S. Mattison is Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art History at Lafayette College.
Robert Rauschenberg FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Robert Rauschenberg is one of the most prolific and best-known artists of the post-war period, whose work, ranging across a number of disciplines, has influenced avant-garde art since the 1950s. Rauschenberg has allowed Robert Mattison into his studio to observe the artist at work and this resulting book examines selected projects in depth so that the meaning of his art, his working procedures, and the reasons behind his various artistic choices may be better understood." "The book covers the influence of urbanism on Rauschenberg's Combine paintings of the 1950s and explores his involvement with the "space race" during the 1960s and 1970s, relating his works to popular culture and demonstrating the development of his ideas about the peaceful exploration of space. Mattison examines Rauschenberg's extensive involvement in the performing arts, tracing his connections to avant-garde dance in America, addressing his own performances, and focusing on his work with the well-known choreographer Trisha Brown. The final chapter examines Rauschenberg's most extensive artistic undertaking, the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI). One venue of this seven-year and eleven-country project was Chile, which Rauschenberg visited while the country was under the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet. The author shows how in dangerous political circumstances Rauschenberg was able to execute and exhibit works critical of the government." Lavishly illustrated with Rauschenberg's works and photographs of the artist in performance and in the studio, the mixture of the visual arts, politics, technology, dance, and urban theory - among other issues - covered in this study recommends it to a wide audience and speaks to the multidisciplinary scholarship of our era.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
One of the leading artists of the avant-garde, Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) has had an active career since World War II, yielding a widely diverse assortment of paintings, assemblage, and performance art projects. Although past observers of the art scene have found it difficult to describe and assess his prolific, eclectic output, these two volumes succeed in providing, from different perspectives, a clearer understanding of this often enigmatic man and his achievements. Joseph (art history, Univ. of California) closely examines Rauschenberg's work in a detailed and scholarly view of the artist's career from 1951 to 1971, as seen through the context of such works as the White Paintings, Rebus, and Canyon-"Combine" paintings created from varied materials-as well as through his close professional association with composer John Cage. Joseph considers Rauschenberg in relation to the neo-avant-garde movement itself, as well as in respect to the sociological, philosophical, and artistic frames of reference that helped to define it. Those interested in the interrelationship of various modern arts genres will find this book especially illuminating. With 103 illustrations. Breaking Boundaries views Rauschenberg's life and creative output with special emphasis on the influences derived from the urban environment, the artist's creative methods and studio surroundings, collaborations with choreographer Trisha Brown, and the massive and long-term Overseas Culture Interchange project. Mattison (art history, Lafayette Coll.) presents a select group of works for in-depth analysis as the key to the art and the artist. The content and style of this lavish, oversized work, with its many photographs and illustrations (72 black-and-white, 32 color), will appeal to academic audiences yet at the same time is accessible to the general reader with an interest in the subject. Libraries owning Mary Lynne Kotz's Rauschenberg: Art and Life (1990) may want to update their collections with these new volumes and with Leo Steinberg's more recent Encounters with Rauschenberg. Recommended for large collections specializing in the arts.-Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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