ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925–2008) Lot n° 115

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925–2008) Untitled, 1987 Image Size: 62 x 53 cm Polaroid 76 x 56 cm, Polacolor 20x24 inch, in excellent condition. Signed "Rauschenberg" in ink in the lower margin. LITERATURE https://20x24studio.com/?p=2350 (blog on Rauschenberg's work with John Reuter and the camera). Photography as a formative medium of collective visual culture played a central role in Rauschenberg's groundbreaking work. In addition to pictures conveyed by mass media, he also processed his own photographs; he photographed continuously since his beginnings. Nevertheless, his camera work was appreciated very late; it was not until 1981 that a major publication was devoted solely to his photos. Shortly afterwards, the Polaroid Company provided him with the man-sized, heavy 20x24-inch camera, which they brought to his studios in both Florida and Manhattan. Before working with it on his "Bleachers Series", he took "straight" pictures of those found objects so typical of him and of the surroundings. The present image is reminiscent in both colour palette and composition of his contemporaneous art works, whose collage-like elements he usually arranged in a roughly orthogonal pattern. Likewise, the attention to different surface textures (grass, sand, wall, wood) and shadow zones reveals his gaze, which he often directed towards the used, the worthless and the discarded. A large-format unique Polaroid, with a colour permanence that surpasses contemporaneous chromogenic prints, this print is an exceptionally rare collector's item.