Robert Rauschenberg

Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA, July 2007

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Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas in October of 1925. While in the service, in about 1947, he discovered his love for art. He studied at Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Acadèmie Julian in Paris, and Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied under Joseph Albers. Joseph Albers was very strict and disciplined inspired Rauschenberg to do "exactly the reverse" of what Albers had taught him . He then moved to New York as that the small town life of North Carolina was not suiting him. In New York with the excitement of the city he was able to better work and see what he was capable of doing. He worked closely with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and later Jasper Johns. He was the first American to win the Grand Prix and the Venice Biennale. In 1967, he was made an honorary doctor of Grinnell College.

He was invited to watch the lift-off of Apollo 11 and to use the theme in his work. He set up a foundation for destitute artists in 1970 called Change Inc. In 1975, he received the Honorary Degree of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida. He was married to Susan Weil and now lives in Florida. Robert Rauschenberg began his art career in 1951, when he made the white and black paintings. He had his first one-man exhibition that year as well. He then continued with making costumes and set designs mostly for Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Robert Rauschenberg is an American artist. He rejected Abstract Expressionism, which he considered lucky for him as that he was able to work with dancers and musicians that became his friends . He helped art transition to Pop Art. He considered himself to be on his own, he...