From Collage to Combine: Rauschenberg and Visual Culture Author(s): Charles Molesworth Source: Salmagundi, No.

118/119 (Spring-Summer 1998), pp. 29-39 Published by: Skidmore College Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40549294 . Accessed: 14/09/2013 10:23
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Column

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worldcelebration of Robert and all its attendant media Rauschenberg, thata seriousintellectual of his cultural industriousness, accounting hasbecomeboth difficult andnecessary. Suchan accounting importance us toreadjust ourwayofseeing, for evenifhe is notunquestionrequires - Rauschenberg what some would claim the of Picasso is an ably equal in a pre-canonical artist haze. (and beingcelebrated) already operating theforceof his presence, This haze multiplies so thatwe can see his inhundreds ofartists from SohotoLos Angeles, influence andina handful eventothe where wecouldreadily ofmedia, whosaw point forgive anyone hiscombines nofurther backthan andtherefore hadnoreason toacknowlwatershed of Duchampand his readymades. edge the "post-retinal" or at least the facesa dilemma: his Rauschenberg, large bodyofhiswork, tooeasyto lookat,andtherefore hardto see. arthas becomerather restricted tomembers oftheGuggenheim, I Ata recent showing alone on the of the while down below hundreds of found top myself ramp, intobuythe hadrushed from the museum members other catalog shopand I ofbooks ittotheartist for hissignature.don'tknowthenumber present I estimate that but itwasseveral times as inscribed evening, Rauschenberg

is the extent oo thorough ofthe art

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numerous as the plentifulsupply of paintings,lithographs, sculptures, photographs,and othermixed-mediaobjects thatgraced the walls and and indulgent overflowgalleriesofthemuseumtothepointofa rapturous in few of to be He atease, him, seemed, my quick glimpses remarkably ing. relaxed in a sort of demotic coronation. Some wag suggested it was to be thesubjectof a retrospective now thatno especially good and timely Picasso show was currently drawingNew York crowds,and now thatde Kooning had passed away and Johnshad earlierbeen likewise celebrated Port byMOMA. The day - perhapstheyear- belongedtothisProteusfrom Arthur, Texas, who had strucksome chord in the early 1950' s at Black Mountain College in NorthCarolina, and had lived to hear it resound the global village and in a myriadof registers. His signature throughout tohis patronymic: a lotof fathers was bold,regular, angular,and restricted are dead, long live the father. In addition to the ramp at the Guggenheim,Rauschenberg's was output poured into the spaces at the same museum's downtown as well as atleastthree other New York galleries.The Guggenheim branch, on Rauschenberg's Soho, as thedowntownbranchis called, concentrated "theater"pieces and otherharder-to-classify efforts. Here Rauschenberg in decreatingthe objecthood of the art work and, as Michael triumphed Friedarguedyearsago in a prescient butmuch-attacked the essay, brought various artsintoan unboundedstateof medleythatresemblednothing so didn't in as but resemble that clear headed much theater, really any way. There was in Fried's piece the implicitsuggestionthatthe criticagreed with Aristotlewhen he said of drama thatthe least of its aspects was spectacle. The image of Rauschenbergroller skatingwith a parachute as anyothersingleicon tohis back is perhapsas often reproduced strapped in postwar American art. If you wanted to of the avant-gardetradition disqualifyyourselfas a knowingreaderof Rauschenberg's "meanings" withhelpingto found), that he is credited (and thoseofthepostmodernism in but this thenyou can start image nothing an existentialist agon by seeing his bodily limitswhile gliding in which the artiststrugglesto transcend across the surfaces of modern life with tenacityand a blissful lack of of Rauschenbergpoint in a different direction.But most interpretations direction.

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of theautograph-seeking audiencein the Onlya smallfraction bothered to attend the New York that evening uptownGuggenheim who has madeby Billy Klver, of a filmaboutRauschenberg premier in a number of efforts, withthe artist collaborated especiallythose a number Thefilm records Art andTechnology with the associated group. that did so much to cement s evanescent ofthe Rauschenberg' "Happenings" in the avant-garde Indeed,theycan be read as community. standing if thetennis one takes communal celebrations, gamein "Nine especially strike the As the two as the ball, soundis players template. Evenings" oftheracquets, from smalldevicesin thehandles andemitted generated inthe covered a light eachsound andwith game large spacegoesout;as the But then the five hundred descends. darkness total spectators proceeds, andcuedtoperform a random invited ofthem, byRauschenberg especially inthe dark movement arefilmed of uncontextualized bymeans sequence on large are then able to watch themselves and of infrared equipment, of a Renaissance court above thecrowd.I thought screenssuspended themythological thepiece endswith figures joiningthe masque,where in an allegory with life. of artmerging members audience art-hisinvolves recalling frequently LookingatRauschenberg in its his work is so but then and themes torical motifs, variegated it mediaand visualvocabularies that and use of different appropriation Rosalind Krauss of seemsto be aboutthevery often problem recalling. andprints backthat the someyears paintings picture planeinthe suggested wherepersonal intuitions and as a memory was bestinterpreted field, best with eachother onequalterms. memories collective Maybethe jostled a collocation ofdisplaced and ofcuriosities, ofthe cabinet is that metaphor that each at the fact is unified that (if all) onlyby image objects replaced inbinding Use ofcolorandpigment beencompletely hasnot forgotten. yet line ofLeonardo's is reminiscent field ofmemory this sfumato, removing with the textures combined faceofsuchremoval, Inthe shadow. andsharp andrumpled andcoarse ofprinted ofcrushed fabrics, tin, can,sheets depth without comestobe registered anysymbolizonlyphenomenologically, expressiveness. ingorpersonal features is well-known. to suchstylistic reaction The negative the mind-set of art that the post-modern expresses Rauschenberg produces real with little consciousness socialexperience: very highlevelsofalert

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CHARLES MOLESWORTH

becomesan and distinction attentiveness. hierarchy Clamoring against an almost of the celebration while back beat, unnoticed narcotizing likelyric ofrepetition expressiveanything against mitigates acceptance notonlythedesacralized ness: "readymade" describes objectbutthe art demands ofit.Butreading ofourexperience nature contemporary still ofoursocial a reflective we see itas notonlyconcretizing that symptom cure.To grant of a homeopathic outthepossibility uneasebutholding an act ofprivileging, of sort work this s space interpretive Rauschenberg' in ourselves to involve afterall is not necessarily lookingfor his todo) outindetail orworking (as somehavealready begun masterpiece, such him or in his the minute against development, measuring steps him an for to claim or even and as Schwitters forebears Duchamp, nevertheless But we are inventiveness. highlevelof formal impossibly or moreof artists a century even after stuckwithour viewing habits, howithasalready show us or to culturevisual the redefine to struggling mediawhile other and a host of beenredefined television, byphotography, the comeawayfrom Onecaneasily wewere Rauschenberg looking. barely with ofwoemixed a feeling with I think, (onethinks triumph fest, playful the to has He and ofhisgoodfriends sought conquer Cunningham). Cage while and mechanistic toitsaleatory visual culture features, bysubmitting theindividual. room for in some find it to still (or pretending?) presuming andwhite is a black works atthe earliest Oneofthe Guggenheim tufted The of a interior the of dated 1949, (and carriage. photograph, fillsthepicture seat cushionvirtually horse-hair stuffed) presumably in area fewyears that theblackpaintings anditclearly frame, anticipates and declarethis to push the associations One is tempted the future. the chromosome the mythologies, keytoall Rauschenbergian photograph chasteand yetvoluptuous in itsvery all his evolvedforms carries that and yetmoreformalistically Whatcould be more"everyday" texture. the whichwe hardly thansucha view:we look at that glimpse, elegant forward take a when we to our backs turn we that backrest position. looking in recast oftheimageis already Buteventhis placing phenomenological standsin fora lost or as thecarriage of nostalgic a nimbus distance, or desired no of world functioning. objects longer preterite of thematic is thechief also introduces thephotograph Butwhat necessitated ofslowlooking, thenecessity by especially Rauschenberg:

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oflooking at surfaces than thechallenge intoan illusory (rather looking balanced or or even a As a formally energized composition). place slow looking be thought of as thestunned remedy, might homeopathic a sort ofdelaymechanism ofa visual that aftermath overload, givesus one we see,what flashes chancetomakesenseoutofwhat before us in more maelstrom of information. This thematic the optically processed everyday "flat bed"approach the much discussed tovisualculture, is bound upwith with The is credited flat-bed is thetable which Rauschenberg developing. in or so that the can is laid stencil onwhich lithographysilkscreening paper Taken together withthe be inkedand rolledand theimagesprinted. - bywhich canbe moved onto the transfer anyreproducible image process allows for a number of different this surface large images printing picture book illustrations, from a widerangeof sources(newspapers, previous one pictorial artifact. Thereareat into etc.)tobe combined photographs, of this. it allows leasttwoimportant First, Rauschenberg consequences or ephemeral to a vast worldof mundane to resort (and (and others) available.This is and archaic)imagesand have them abstruse readily arrives andis circuas so muchvisualinformation important especially . thenature of on this inmediathat lated Second, ready reproducibility rely to this as "radirefers thepicture (Leo Steinberg change planechanges and evenjumbledas cal"), sincethecombined imagescan be gathered easel always vertical objectson a desk,say, whereasthe previously to hand and a skillful controlling generate images. required oflithography, andalso by with thetechniques Outofhiswork thecanvasoff thewallandplaced taken ofPollack'shaving theinfluence redefined thesenseofspacein ofthestudio, iton thefloor Rauschenberg areaonto a horizontal outofthework Thisflattening visualculture. plane, in whenRauschenberg whichaccelerated intensively began working ontheability to the intheearly 1960's,alongwith emphasis print-making a different sort of from numerous "transfer" sources, generated imagery that no of imagesand textures sees a collection object.Now theviewer a of oreven juxtaposition toillusionistic haveanypretense depth, longer The thematic a restructured in or against material thematic background. visual to the has ofthe coherence flattening (modernist) way collage given have Now thecombine combine. ofthe(postmodern) may begunlifeor thenotorious as a quasi-sculptural achieved (for example, object notoriety

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into oroutofitsrubber itsstuffed wriggling goat priapically "Monogram," were redrawn as farcical surrealist but if a it' s as tire; objet), logo corporate forcewhenthe "logic" of its visual regimen it achievesits greatest formalism of easel in a finalblow againstthe contained resurfaces to must work its the so This way through resurfacing, speak, painting. anditalsotakes someofitsmomentum series ofpaintings, monochromatic as well. thevernacular from sculpture theimportance of the"flatbed" styleforall of By suggesting and I valorize the work setitagainst a s output, pictorial Rauschenberg' and thecomposition and formal abouteasel painting grandnarrative of and illusionistic (On objecthood. theflatbed meaning pictorial space for but the absence ofa hierarchical, vie with one another attention, images tendsto makeeach pictured or illusionistic system ordering symbolic andmore like"simply" the ofone. lesslikeanobject representation object as thewindow ontoanother or a transThe idea of thepainting world, of version ofthis formed one,is replaced bytheart objectas a collocation insist that for untransformed Manywould Rauschenberg representations.) - finally the travail and institutional ! they would add, exasperatedly long over and done with. As as the of easel is early 1953,with painting triumph "Erasedde Kooning was makdiscussed much Rauschenberg Drawing", he stoodinanyOedipalnarrative. the Reading ingno bonesaboutwhere decreative icon is an extension of how the of such a entire under sign corpus the eye travelswithout many people read a single Rauschenberg: ofmemory), the senseoftexture moves Krauss' s field (recall hierarchizing arebracketed a free formal towards (ormultiplied beyond play, questions suchas those between andtheuseofgeneric distinctions, anyreckoning), in is not and anywaygermane. Rauschenberg sculpture painting, simply andtheir "found" as traditional make hisobjects doesn't sculpture, quality them as objects tends both tode-realize museum totheir setting juxtaposed of autonomy. a nimbus and cast overthem Theyexist,as manyhave art and life. in between the noticed, gap looksvery cool,instituNevertheless, goodinthe Rauschenberg master ofthe demotic Andso this ofthe tionalized Guggenheim. sinuosity tothe and it' s hard not to hasbecome a museum andpreterite apply figure, But what remains of art of"standard" work thesorts viewing. approaches of art historical readings perhapsthe key pointis thatif traditional

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Rauschenbergseem a bitweak or totally unacceptableto some, so, too,do the newer critical readings, even with all their theoreticalfinesse or His workmay be betweenworlds,or at least whatwe are tendentiousness. accustomed to calling discursiveworlds. Rauschenberg's way of questioningthe statusof objects and images has now led onto thequestion of how we are to see him. IfI mayinterject an elementoftastehere,I foundtheworkI liked attracted to in best in the show was the work I had been most strongly and earlierviewings,namelythe"Hoarfrost"( 1974-75) "Pyramid"(1974) withhis transfer methodonto softly series. By printing hangingbolts of translucent fabric,Rauschenbergdematerializesthepictorialspace even in some ways on canvas. I think as he plays withtheidea ofputting pigment to the of wanted time (hence his veryprocess paint Rauschenbergalways withtheater). These "Hoarfrost" fascination hangingsare like traditional beforeor after thestretching and framing has completely canvas paintings textile. the of and And, again, theyare a combining pigment objectified sortofhomagetosfumato technique.The "Pyramid"seriesareravishingly hand made paper rectangles, withtheir set in a row of four:theoff-white from their of of fabric lower edge, are, course, hanging diaphanous scrap and evanescent.This is painting's both chaste and voluptuous,textured day off,perhaps,or its finalapotheosis. One of thecentraltensionsin Rauschenbergis thatbetweenthe in itsperfected the hand. His hand seems remarkable and casualness, eye as each new technique is picked up to fuel an almost embarrassingly Thathe has a superbeye might be doubtedbysome,and prodigiousoutput. on sufficientevidence. But when you see his photographs,such an on view assumptiondoesn't seem to hold at all. The variousphotographs at theGuggenheimalone would make thecareersof mostotherphotographers active in America at the presenttime. Then thereare the "early" at Pace Wildenstein.The workin thismedium would make photographs best claim to Rauschenberg's excessive talent,forhe seems the perhaps themedium.Of coursetheaccidental tohave mastered almostaccidentally in its currentand even avant-garde has become a part of photography thinkof the pathos of Nan Goldin and the social gritof manifestations; RobertFrank.

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howvaultsoverthissortof contextualization, Rauschenberg and and promiscuous ever. Because his eye is at once so vernacular we can see. Walter as if he sees all of sees for he affiliati us, ve, everything that hadtobe traditional narratives between madea distinction Benjamin whichwas news thatexplaineditself. and information, interpreted, ofthepresent, inthevisualinformation is so s steeped eye Rauschenberg' work that his and other recirculated media, beggars through photographs meant ofwhat SusanSontag (Thismaybe a pureinstance interpretation. A painting ofartin place of a hermeneutics.) an erotics whensheurged andan 1" (1964), with itsimagesofJohn suchas "Retroactive Kennedy on national ifwe saw itas a commentary wouldbe banalized astronaut, Even the internal leader. a fallen for or an "quotation" visionary elegy pride of thePresident's hand,withits dramatic authority pressconference to underscore howthe serves index in the rendered finger, only pointing The manipulated obvious tendsto obviateall subtlety. triumphantly of color transconnotations indexical such colors, photo carrying strong from thecharge of a distraction areeither roomdecisions, fers andprint of how or an admission ofimagesrepresses, that theassembly meaning and of surface is first, visualrepresentation last,and alwaysa question texture. has becomean alleoutput remarkably prolific Rauschenberg's of thelate twentieth century. Everywhere goryforthevisualoverload out Itstartles screens while image. constantly image image imagebegets and yet in this order to could artist one that carnival, hope register any or wood or cloth whether texture the feel of material, pigment Order theeyebacktofocus. mayormaynotfollow. brings continuously will and of the Inthe meantime images, sorting selecting processes seeing, elitist restricted solid.Andthe world somehow havetomakethe (and,yes, oftemplate serves as a sort still wedo inmuseums but alsofocused) seeing sees can be readas the thisneed.WhatRauschenberg forthishunger, - orcounterpoint - ofallhepaints from one andmakes. source Returning is back to theGuggenheim's side galleries of therectilinear ramp to the focus of the after sharp ofpaint theviscosity rediscover photographic is partof the to medium medium from ViewingRauschenberg print. andhallowing, as wegotothese as long but museum hallowed, experience, thewaywe see, it can onlybe to Rauschenberg's to refine institutions

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as a museum artist is assured. Ofcourse, suchstature that hisstature credit and criticism as well. academic art the isreaffirmed (As for professional by itsprevious showwas an exhibit of drawings called itself, Guggenheim werepreparing as ifthey for thecurrent toRauschenberg," "From Drer inthesummer of 1997theSoho branch On theother hand, hagiography. unless the "Arakawa/Gins: Reexhibit ever most the mounted stupid versible Destiny"was meantas a wickedparodyof all architectural ofreviewers.) itwent undetected Ifitwere, bythemajority utopianism. of s career andthe twoschools ofRauschenberg' Foranoverview article we areindebted toan excellent ithasengendered critical response 1997 Artforum) (in the September, by Thomas Crow, an important On theone hand, Crow uses ofreception ofthecritical theory. example as that use s ofapproaches seesa category Rauschenberg' biography a key in theart to thechanges Crowhimself attends Forexample, tohiswork. for and the illustrations to Rorida moves when completes Rauschenberg and Dante (1958-60). Here a certaincriticaltemperament displays, out theworking becomes ofhowprivate thethematic heroicizes, public, whichRauschenberg's of an almosthapticOdyssey personal through as interventions into recast demonsand delights publicspace that get visual On theother our collective andpunctuate summarize experience. that concentrates on focused there is a more hand, art-historically approach to the hallowed how theworkhas attacked rout) (and presumably put raised with their toillusion ofeaselpainting, traditions longcommitment to genius. Buteven andcraftsmanship elevated ofautonomy tothepitch thefirst someambivalence: attheendwith Crowis left approach though the second tends toslight the "rich left todevelop, hasroom particularities" tobeing in that would have evaluation a role must that pretense any play is toRauschenberg's that hashappened final. Oneofthethings reputation him into a Picasso-like world ofart hasturned rather airless that the history on thework: onecategory after another whilebestowing combine, figure hailed booklet he has been the says postmodern Guggenheim's PopArt, sinceAbstract movement of virtually as "theforerunner every postwar Expressionism." is that of that somewouldapplytoRauschenberg One category this term. has showered on the postmodernism despite disrepute "genius", wouldwantto butthemostoverstimulated But surely publicist anyone

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ofRauschenberg. whenspeaking Couldwe sayhe is inflect thecategory Those who look to the artist's or public an off-hand genius? biography their tosecure might interpretations easilyrevelintheparadoxes persona evenremember Pauline wouldgiveriseto;somemight suchcategorizing of Wells' "Citizen Kane" as a "shallowmasterKaeFs characterization freeof vanity and all the has been noticeably piece." Rauschenberg andexcessofcontemporary As ifinreturn attendant for celebrity. caprice and refreshing his treatment the critics has such relative modesty, by Few have priedintohis sexual and even restraint. combined respect forexample, as JillJohnston did withJohns orientation, (to verylittle ambition ofthe ROCI (Rauschenberg effect, vaulting bythe way).Eventhe where travelled all Overseas Cultural Interchange) project, Rauschenberg exhibits and overtheworldsetting visual up appropriating indigenous and traditions, hasn'tbeen castigated vocabularies as an exampleof Theclaim cultural togenius rests onhisability toshift imperialism. largely to remain tonewandoften advanced with media, technologically engaged AllenKaprow'sdescription oftheartist ofthe the (Crowquotes everyday as "discoverfing] outof ordinary themeaning fifties of ordinarithings either witha his own measure, whencollaborating ness"),and to trust of technicians or with his peers. competing group Claims forgeniuswill in partalways be claims about how the artist or the workis, or can be made to appear. representative is abouthisownstanding, northe of Rauschenberg, course, notinnocent in which itappeared. Often is his relation hisart bearstothetime quoted of thelate fifties: "It is completely remark aboutthewhitepaintings - today is their creator." Andlater hesaid I ammaking them irrelevant that art." Such traditional notions were hefelt as ifheandhisfriends "inventing - theexpression andthefeeling ofabsolute oftheZeitgeist originality withits seem to sit uneasilyin thepoeticsof postmodernism, might is also andpersonal ofgrand overviews mistrust autonomy. Interpretation As Fred Jameson bedeviled observed, interpretive bypostmodern poetics. of the object,then workby dichotomizing theories specificfeatures todepth. What as part towhole orsurface them dichotomized, gets relating where thedisputes as depth orthewhole, andwhatcounts is, ofcourse, s work, the idea of come intoplay.WithRauschenberg' however, very in a work exists But the detailor depth seemsto be unmoored. always

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ornot couldhavemanaged andso whether field, Rauschenberg (changing) his own the culture seemsintent tobecomea genius will, surrounding by himone. on declaring at the A closingimage.Twenty yearsago I saw "Monogram" I with several works of remember inStockholm, museum Duchamp. along a hostofPop butitstoodoutamong worn anddusty, rather itas looking I was andothers. AttheGuggenheim Lichtenstein works Art byWarhol, has been the it cleanness of the struck hairs; (relative) goat's long by what me most was the But struck for this showing. important up spruced of I had forgotten. On thegoat'snoseis a squiggle which "key"feature of orders invarious colors.Yes, theold interpretive dabsofpaint several : what the at least are after all humanistic (or right enough) psychology right his Thegoatis Rauschenberg, is himself. often most artist sticking pictures it wherever it leads doesn'tbelong, it (normally) nose where following him.

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