The artwork I choose to discuses in this paper is “Bed” by Robert Rauschenberg.

This is an interesting and historical piece of art, by one of the most influential and prolific artist of the past century.

In order to understand the piece we must first understand a little bit about the artist background. We also need to understand the reasons behind the medium used.

Born Ernest Milton Rauschenberg, in Texas. He belonged to the Church of Christ. He had originally wanted to be a preacher. Until he found that whatever he enjoyed was a sin. He was drafted into the United States Navy, where he first began painting. He would paint portraits. During a stay in Cape Pendelton, he was first introduced to what exactly painters did, when he saw a show of some classic paintings. After this show he decided he would like to try painting as a career. After his military career he enrolled into art school. First in the United states, then France, where he found the French to be to concerned withpsychological symbolism. He then went back to America and attended the Black Mountain School, on and off for five years. He studied under Josef Albers of the Avant-garde movement, who studied at the Bauhaus, and taught Bauhaus principles. Rauschenberg always had trouble with his training and was intimidated by Albers. He did not like the cleanliness of the artist and had already liberated himself from the brush, preferring to use his hands. He did however learn much about discipline, theory and how to use found objects in his art.

Rauschenberg met many people at the school who were to influence him in his works and career as an artist. People like artist; William de Kooning, composer; John Cage and dancer; Merce Cunningham. All of which he worked with after hispsychological symbolism. He then went back to America and attended the Black Mountain School, on and off for five years. He studied under Josef Albers of the Avant-garde movement, who studied at the Bauhaus, and taught Bauhaus principles.

Rauschenberg always had trouble with his training and was intimidated by Albers. He did not like the cleanliness of the artist and had already liberated himself from the brush, preferring to use his hands. He did however learn much about discipline, theory and how to use found objects in his art. Rauschenberg met many people at the school who were to influence him in his works and career as an artist. People like artist; William de Kooning, composer; John Cage and dancer; Merce Cunningham. All of which he worked with after his schooling. John cage had a great influence on Rauschenberg's thought process. Rauschenberg said of Cage “…he was the only one who gave me permission to go on thinking.”ii

During one of Rauschberg’s shows, he was to meet Marcel Duchamp, who’s work he admired, and inspired him, to go against the grain in his work. He is also responsible for the great question “What is Art?” Rauschberg’s ideas were slightly different from Duchamp’s though. “Duchamp believed that everything is art, Robert Rauschenberg sees art in all things.”iii Duchamp used an objects true form to create his works. Rauschenberg creates a new synthesis by using the objects form. While Duchamp intentionally went against the grain. Rauschenberg did it unintentionally and without strategizing, he wanted people to create their own interpretations of what he had observed and then recreated. No matter what their cultural ideals or perspectives were.

Andy Warhol also influenced Rauschenberg by showing him how to use silk-screening.  Jasper Johns had an influenced on Rauschenberg also; they worked together for a number of years and had a homosexual relationship for six years.iv It was probably the union of Rauschenberg and Johns that bore pop art. “Bed” has been said to symbolize  Rauschenberg’s homosexuality, although he has never been public confirmation of this.v

All of the people that influenced Rauschenberg made people question the way in which they view the world. As he does, with his art, always trying to get the public to interpret the piece for themselves.  

Rauschenberg has floated through many genera of art; Abstract Expressionist, Pop Artist, Minimalist and was considered part of the Beat movement. He did collage, sculpture, paintings, printmaking and photography. Always seeming to be just a little ahead of the times. Rauschenberg was becoming an artist during a time that restriction was the way to work. “Drawing, modeling, and textural contrast, all devices of representation were rejected”vi He opposed these forms of structure and carefully worked around them. Rather he would place images or objects directly into the work, in a collage like manner. He felt that all objects or materials should retain their original identity, and yet fuse with in the work. That each object contains a history of its own, and that it will be become part of the works history.

His works are hard to pigeonhole, as it seems that he is continually mixing concepts and ideas, and covering as many bases as possible.  “They involve Dada nose-thumbing, Expressionist brio, an American appreciation of pure funk, a flâneur's eye for chance and juxtaposition in the streets, a sensualist's feeling for the most outré kinds of texture, and a scopophiliac's unquenchable thirst for images”vii  Rauschenberg has said, “I want my paintings to be reflections of life, and life can’t be stopped,… I enable the ordinary.”viii He wants the viewer to experience the painting. He tries to give meaning to objects by juxtaposing them with other images that are not necessarily related to the object. Placing the whole mess into a context of art.
You can see in “Bed” that Rauschenberg, is following an Abstract Expressionist form, with his use of visibly yet loosely gestural painting. He emphasis on color,shape and texture is also visible in “Bed”. There may be some expression of his internal feelings and emotions, although this is unclear. He is however starting to reject the Abstract Expressionist forms, by incorporating objects within the art, against the ideals of the Abstract Expressionists. In later works this becomes more evident.  He also enters into the world of the surreal, by relying on chance, the chance use of a quilt, with its dream like pattern. Using recognizable object yet using abstraction in the painting of the quilt. There seems to be no set idea behind the pattern of the paint rather it is an automatic use of paint. He was definitely a Beat Artist as he was non-conformist in his works, as “Bed” shows with its assemblage technique, and the use of discarded objects. Thus rejecting the mainstreams thoughts on what is art. Rauschenberg describes himself as Avant-garde. He has said, somewhat ironically “Avant-Garde is never successful. It’s successful in the home but not the outside world.”ix He is a modernist artist who continually tries to re-invent his art.

Rauschenberg coined the term “combine” in which he took everyday objects and added paint, pencil and other objects, to create a combination work. “Bed”, created in 1955 and measuring 75¼” x 31½” x 6 ½”, was one of the first of these pieces, although it is not a true combine according to Rauschenbergx. It consisted of a real bed quilt, pillow and sheet. That has been partially covered with many colors of oil paints, toothpaste, nail polish and pencil on a stretcher. The original textures of the objects are blended with the textures of paint and pencil. Creating a whole new synthesis, with many nuances. The top of the piece has a pillow and is covered with paint, strewn about in a very playful, gesture like manner. The bottom is the original quilt, with only a few drips of paint on it, almost as if by accident. There is a harmony to the work both sections run together into a single unified work. It is more reminiscent of a painting than a sculpture. The work looks as if someone may have actually been sleeping in the “Bed”. The pillow with a shallow dent and the sheets are partially pulled down.

Although it takes on the 3rd dimension, like a sculpture, it is to be hung like a painting. The reality behind the work is that Rauschenberg had run out of materials to paint on. He had an old quilt and figured that it would work nicely as a canvas. Rauschenberg had difficulties with “bed”, as in his childhood, his mom would make quilts, so he added the pillow, and so “Bed” was brought to life.

Blending painting, sculpture, life and art together. Showing how an artist’s life is, dreams and reality combined with love and desires. It was due to his own poverty that he developed his methods of painting, and used whatever materials he could find.

There are multiple ideas at work, with the combining of real objects with their own colors and the artist additions of color and placement. The work is life size, that is to say it is the actual size of the quilt he used, and the pillow is a real pillow. The work defies meaning, but has a somewhat comfortable yet nonsensical feel to it.

  Many of Rauschenberg’s works have been done over other paintings and paintings of his x-wife Sue Weil, another American Artist. Who he met in France at art school, both of them thought the other was a worse artist, and were outcasts of the art school they attended. They both have painted on each other’s works, due to the lack of money, and materials during the early days, although Weil was from a wealthy family. Neither artist felt it was appropriate to use her families’ money to further their careers.

Rauschenberg is probably best know for his combines taking collage to a place it had never been. Picking up where Schwitters and Cornell had brought the art

form to. He was instrumental in bringing the two dimensional assemblage into
the three dimensional collage.  He used found objects and linked them to his

canvas with paint.  “Bed” actually comes straight off the wall, and at you.
Creating a high relief painting, unlike Picasso and Braque’s works that only began to come off the canvas. It contains both Abstract Expressionism and Surrealist elements. It does not take it self seriously though, unlike both the surreal and abstract expressionism that came before.

Rauschenberg fostered and inspired a number of younger artists, like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Who brought Pop Art into the public view, creating a new American realism.  He was also in the forefront of the Minimalist movement, where the painting or artwork becomes an object. Rauschenberg reflects the past in his works, using a dripped paint technique like that of Pollock, the quilt itself is very geometrical and yet abstract.  He combines the past with the present and creates art history in his art works.

Rauschenberg is probably best know for his combines taking collage to a place it had never been. Picking up where Schwitters and Cornell had brought the art

form to. He was instrumental in bringing the two dimensional assemblage into
the three dimensional collage.  He used found objects and linked them to his

canvas with paint.  “Bed” actually comes straight off the wall, and at you.
Creating a high relief painting, unlike Picasso and Braque’s works that only began to come off the canvas. It contains both Abstract Expressionism and Surrealist elements. It does not take it self seriously though, unlike both the surreal and abstract expressionism that came before. Rauschenberg fostered and inspired a number of younger artists, like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Who brought Pop Art into the public view, creating a new American realism.  He was also in the forefront of the Minimalist movement, where the painting or artwork becomes an object. Rauschenberg reflects the past in his works, using a dripped paint technique like that of Pollock, the quilt itself is very geometrical and yet abstract.  He combines the past with the present and creates art history in his art works.

“Bed”, was the beginning of Rauschenberg’s “combines” and the forefront of a

new artistic style, and perhaps a movement. He has been a prolific artist and is always trying to explore new areas in his artwork, and this makes it hard to categorize his work. He wants art to be more than just his ideas and thought process. Rather he consciously tries to avoid developing classical qualities, “I don’t mind them being hidden. I just object to them being the subject.”xi

“Rauschenberg is too busy changing the world for the dust to settle sufficiently so that we can pin him down or neatly fit him into art specific category, group or

movement.”xii “Bed” is a pivotal work of modernist art, as it represents a new form emerging and the putting to bed of the surreal.

End Notes

http://www.usp.br/mac/exposicoes/96/rausche/usrausch.htm (03/27/2000)
ii Rauschenberg/Rose, 1987, pg 34,Vintage Books

iii http://hesscollection.com/gallery15.html (03/28/2000)
iv http://www.gay.net/manoday/may_archive/stroke_19980522.html (04/02/2000)

v http://slate.msn.com/Art/97-10-08/Art.asp (04/03/2000)

vi http://www.visual.arts.ewu.edu/galleries/spokane-center/rauschenberg.html (04/02/2000)

vii http://slate.msn.com/Art/97-10-08/Art.asp (04/02/2000)

viii http://www.articles.halfempty.com/art/98-04-27.htm (03/28/2000) by Martin Spellberg

ix Rauschenberg/Rose, 1987, pg 70, Vintage Books

x Rauschenberg/Rose, 1987, pg 58, Vintage Books

xi Rauschenberg/Rose, 1987, pg 90, Vintage Books i Rauschenberg/Rose, 1987, pg 7, Vintage Books

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