Beschreibung:

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925-2008)Wooden Rays (Galvanic Suite) 1989 signed and dated 89; numbered 89.68 on the reverse acrylic on galvanized aluminum 48 by 36 in. 121.9 by 91.44 cm.FootnotesProvenance Collection of Dr. Mark Vechsler, New York (acquired directly from the artist) Thence by descent to the present owner Rauschenberg was unrelenting in his pursuit of mastery. He refined every process, studied his materials and through his subject matter he produced works that capture the spirit of their time and are quintessentially Rauschenberg. Wooden Rays (Galvanic Suite) (1989) is one such a piece that demonstrates the artist's confidence and cultivated method, producing a range of associative threads in its color and chosen imagery. A full composition of images painted over the galvanized surface of sheet metal gives Wooden Rays (Galvanic Suite) an undeniable weight and presence. It is an immaculate and appealing painting by an artist who continues to be celebrated and highly sought-after by the most discerning collectors. Few artists have left as profound an impact on the course of art history as Robert Rauschenberg His career spans generations and movements, from the nascent works of Abstract Expressionism through Pop Art and Minimalism. Until his passing in 2008, he remained a stalwart presence at the forefront of Contemporary Art practice. Over the course of his storied 60-year career, Rauschenberg worked in a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, fabric collage, printmaking, photography, and performance, emerging a challenger to gestural abstract painting and Greenbergian 'medium specificity' at a time where Abstract Expressionism was the dominant creative philosophy in America. Studying at the famed Black Mountain College under the tutelage of Josef Albers he quickly rose to be one of the most influential and experimental artists of his time, a progenitor of practically every Post-War artistic development, and the first American to win the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Biennale in 1964. Executed over an elegant size, the galvanized aluminum surface of the present work is eye-catching and haptically enthralling – creating a rich, subtly matte surface that holds the paint chiffon-like across it. Rauschenberg didn't consider his paintings didactic. Instead, through the images and the construction of the composition, he produced a layering of motifs and a sequence of passages that, viewed as a whole, generate relational schemata and inferences. Coming of age in a Post-War world that saw mass production and capitalism enter a newly heightened phase, ushering in Pop Art in kind, in Rauschenberg's paintings there is a tacit nod to the newspaper, magazine, and advertising hoardings that had become an adopted visual language for the masses. Rauschenberg was revolutionary in this sense, able to synthesize an aesthetic form that merged mass iconography with the questions posed by the Avant-Garde artists of his day: how to create paintings that felt urgent and real. In Wooden Rays (Galvanic Suite), painted in his archetypal method, the work feels remarkably Romantic. Rauschenberg was politically active and his work often highlighted current affairs. He believed in the necessity of art as a vehicle for positive social change. He travelled widely throughout his life participating in numerous international ventures, and most notably embarked on the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) project between 1984 to 1991 that placed the artist in residence in countries including Chile, China and Cuba. In the present work, however, this partiality feels far removed. In its place, there is a reticence and quiet resolve that conjures an ethereal landscape and sense of memory. The work evokes a transitional space that is enchanting and inviting. Rauschenberg's impact on the arc of history and art production remains evident across the many artists who count him as a touchstone. His works stand amongst the highligh