Considered the “forerunner of essentially every postwar movement since abstract expressionism,” Robert Rauschenberg was a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist who helped reshape American art in the 1950s and 1960s. Rauschenberg’s work represents an ongoing dialogue “between the handmade and the readymade, and between the gestural brushstroke and the mechanically reproduced image.” Throughout his six-decade career, his art incorporated technology, choreography, performance, and multimedia.
Rauschenberg studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri, and the Académie Julian, Paris, before attending Black Mountain College, Asheville, North Carolina. He later moved to New York City, where he encountered abstract expressionism and began incorporating open brushwork into his paintings. A solo exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York, and the International Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale established his artistic reputation.
