Menu

Robert Rauschenberg

Works on Metal

November 1–December 13, 2014
Beverly Hills

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Installation view, photo by Robert Wedemeyer

Works Exhibited

Robert Rauschenberg, Aqua Fanfare (Urban Bourbon), 1993 Acrylic on copper and mirrored aluminum, 72 13/16 × 48 13/16 inches (184.9 × 124 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Aqua Fanfare (Urban Bourbon), 1993

Acrylic on copper and mirrored aluminum, 72 13/16 × 48 13/16 inches (184.9 × 124 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Bush Socks (Borealis), 1992 Tarnishes on copper and acrylic, 96 13/16 × 48 13/16 inches (245.9 × 124 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Bush Socks (Borealis), 1992

Tarnishes on copper and acrylic, 96 13/16 × 48 13/16 inches (245.9 × 124 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Egyptian Chick (Night Shade), 1991 Tarnishes on brushed aluminum, 49 × 37 inches (124.5 × 94 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Egyptian Chick (Night Shade), 1991

Tarnishes on brushed aluminum, 49 × 37 inches (124.5 × 94 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Elephant Tale (Urban Bourbon), 1989 Acrylic and enamel on enameled and mirrored aluminum with bronze frame, 84 ¾ × 96 ¾ inches (215.3 × 245.7 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York

Robert Rauschenberg, Elephant Tale (Urban Bourbon), 1989

Acrylic and enamel on enameled and mirrored aluminum with bronze frame, 84 ¾ × 96 ¾ inches (215.3 × 245.7 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York

Robert Rauschenberg, Sousa Park Summer Glut, 1987 Assembled metal parts, 65 × 76 × 19 inches (165.1 × 193 × 48.3 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Sousa Park Summer Glut, 1987

Assembled metal parts, 65 × 76 × 19 inches (165.1 × 193 × 48.3 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Sousa Park Summer Glut, 1987 (detail) Assembled metal parts, 65 × 76 × 19 inches (165.1 × 193 × 48.3 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Sousa Park Summer Glut, 1987 (detail)

Assembled metal parts, 65 × 76 × 19 inches (165.1 × 193 × 48.3 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Sousa Park Summer Glut, 1987 (detail) Assembled metal parts, 65 × 76 × 19 inches (165.1 × 193 × 48.3 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Sousa Park Summer Glut, 1987 (detail)

Assembled metal parts, 65 × 76 × 19 inches (165.1 × 193 × 48.3 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Bumper Slip Late Summer Glut, 1987 Assembled metal parts, 55 × 66 × 20 inches (139.7 × 167.6 × 50.8 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Bumper Slip Late Summer Glut, 1987

Assembled metal parts, 55 × 66 × 20 inches (139.7 × 167.6 × 50.8 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Bumper Slip Late Summer Glut, 1987 (detail) Assembled metal parts, 55 × 66 × 20 inches (139.7 × 167.6 × 50.8 cm)© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

Robert Rauschenberg, Bumper Slip Late Summer Glut, 1987 (detail)

Assembled metal parts, 55 × 66 × 20 inches (139.7 × 167.6 × 50.8 cm)
© The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2014/Licensed by VAGA, New York, photo by Rob McKeever

About

I like seeing people using materials that one’s not accustomed to seeing in art. That has a particular value. New materials have fresh associations, physical properties and qualities that have built into them the possibility of forcing you or helping you do something else.
—Robert Rauschenberg

In collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Gagosian Beverly Hills is pleased to announce an exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s works on metal of the 1980s and 1990s. This will be the first major presentation of his work on the West Coast since MOCA’s acclaimed traveling exhibition of the Combines in 2006.

Rauschenberg’s protean outlook ushered in a new era of postwar American art in the wake of Abstract Expressionism with a free and experimental approach that drew inspiration from conceptual, materialist, and gestural precedents. His inventive use of discarded materials and appropriated images eviscerated distinctions between medium and genre, abstraction and representation, while his “flatbed picture plane,” which absorbed found objects into the realm of paintings, forever changed the relationship between artwork and viewer.

“Works on Metal” traces Rauschenberg’s obsession, beginning in the mid-1980s, with the potential of metal. Exchanging canvas for flat sheets of metal mounted directly to the wall, he worked in consequent series using aluminum, brass, copper, and bronze, harnessing the natural hues and reflections of each. He then juxtaposed their intrinsic qualities with secondary processes, from the application of acrylic and enamel paints and silkscreened photographic images to his fine-tuning of chemical reactions and manipulation of industrial scrap and refuse.

Read more