Rauschenberg Talking Heads

Robert Rauschenberg was one of the preeminent American artists of the 20th century, occupying a singular position that straddled the Abstract Expressionist and Pop art movements, drawing on key elements of each. An artistic polymath equally adept at painting, collage and silkscreening, Rauschenberg is best known for for the complex assemblages of found objects he termed “combines.”

Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1925. He first began to seriously consider a career in art in 1947, while serving in the U.S. Marines. After leaving the service, he briefly studied art in Paris with support from the G.I. Bill, then moved to North Carolina to attend Black Mountain College, home to a flourishing cross-disciplinary art community. Among his peers there were choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage, both of whom became friends and artistic collaborators.

Relocating to New York in the mid-1950s, Rauschenberg was initially put off by what he perceived as the self-seriousness of the adherents of Abstract Expressionism, then the dominant movement in the New York art world. Like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg was drawn to the visual landscape of popular culture and mined its imagery for inspiration. He used unorthodox materials like house paint and tried novel techniques in his studio like running paper over with a car whose wheels he had inked. Shortly after his inaugural solo exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, which featured paintings and drawings, he pivoted to a new format, creating his first found-object combines, which became his signature. The most famous of these is the 1959 Monogram in which a taxidermied goat is surrounded by a car tire, recalling the way a person’s initials are interwoven in the design referred to by the title.

Later in the 1960s, Rauschenberg turned his attention to silkscreening, creating prints that feature iconic figures of the day, very much in line with the style and content of Pop art. One such work, 1965's Core, which was created to commemorate the Congress of Racial Equality, combines photographs of President Kennedy, an unidentified Native American man, and a statue of a Civil War soldier with images of highways, amusement parks, street signs, and other features of the built environment. A circular color-test wheel sits at the composition’s formal core, reflecting the work’s commentary on race and ethnicity.

Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, Rauschenberg experimented with printing on unusual materials, such as Plexiglas, clothing and aluminum. Venturing even further afield, he created performance works, such as his 1963 choreographed piece “Pelican” and the 1966 film Open Score. In 1998, the Guggenheim Museum presented a large and comprehensive retrospective of Rauschenberg’s work, highlighting his influence on American art in the second half of the 20th century.

Find original Robert Rauschenberg art for sale on 1stDibs.

Perhaps one of the most influential contemporary art movements, Pop art emerged in the 1950s. In stark contrast to traditional artistic practice, its practitioners drew on imagery from popular culture — comic books, advertising, product packaging and other commercial media — to create original Pop art paintings, prints and sculptures that celebrated ordinary life in the most literal way.

ORIGINS OF POP ART

• Started in Britain in the 1950s, flourished in 1960s-era America
• “This is Tomorrow,” at London's Whitechapel Gallery in 1956, was reportedly the first Pop art exhibition
• A reaction to postwar mass consumerism
• Transitioning away from Abstract Expressionism
• Informed by neo-Dada and artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg; influenced postmodernism and Photorealism 

CHARACTERISTICS OF POP ART 

• Bold imagery
• Bright, vivid colors
• Straightforward concepts
• Engagement with popular culture 
• Incorporation of everyday objects from advertisements, cartoons, comic books and other popular mass media

POP ARTISTS TO KNOW

• Richard Hamilton
• Andy Warhol
• Marta Minujín
• Claes Oldenburg
• Eduardo Paolozzi
• Rosalyn Drexler
• James Rosenquist
• Peter Blake
• Roy Lichtenstein

ORIGINAL POP ART ON 1STDIBS

The Pop art movement started in the United Kingdom as a reaction, both positive and critical, to the period’s consumerism. Its goal was to put popular culture on the same level as so-called high culture.

Richard Hamilton’s 1956 collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? is widely believed to have kickstarted this unconventional new style.

Pop art works are distinguished by their bold imagery, bright colors and seemingly commonplace subject matter. Practitioners sought to challenge the status quo, breaking with the perceived elitism of the previously dominant Abstract Expressionism and making statements about current events. Other key characteristics of Pop art include appropriation of imagery and techniques from popular and commercial culture; use of different media and formats; repetition in imagery and iconography; incorporation of mundane objects from advertisements, cartoons and other popular media; hard edges; and ironic and witty treatment of subject matter.

Although British artists launched the movement, they were soon overshadowed by their American counterparts. Pop art is perhaps most closely identified with American Pop artist Andy Warhol, whose clever appropriation of motifs and images helped to transform the artistic style into a lifestyle. Most of the best-known American artists associated with Pop art started in commercial art (Warhol made whimsical drawings as a hobby during his early years as a commercial illustrator), a background that helped them in merging high and popular culture.

Roy Lichtenstein was another prominent Pop artist that was active in the United States. Much like Warhol, Lichtenstein drew his subjects from print media, particularly comic strips, producing paintings and sculptures characterized by primary colors, bold outlines and halftone dots, elements appropriated from commercial printing. Recontextualizing a lowbrow image by importing it into a fine-art context was a trademark of his style. Neo-Pop artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami further blurred the line between art and popular culture.

Pop art rose to prominence largely through the work of a handful of men creating works that were unemotional and distanced — in other words, stereotypically masculine. However, there were many important female Pop artists, such as Rosalyn Drexler, whose significant contributions to the movement are recognized today. Best known for her work as a playwright and novelist, Drexler also created paintings and collages embodying Pop art themes and stylistic features.

Read more about the history of Pop art and the style’s famous artists, and browse the collection of original Pop art paintings, prints, photography and other works for sale on 1stDibs.