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Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist

Clark Anderson

One of the most well known American Abstract Expressionist and Pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg died on Monday at his home on Captiva Island in Florida at the age of 82. He will be best remembered for his love of the ordinary materials which make up our lives in the 20th and 21st centuries once saying, "you begin with the possibilities of the material." Rauschenberg first gained recognition with his famous "Combines" during the 1950s in which he explored using these found ordinary materials in conjunction with a form of loose expressionist painting, changing the context and meaning of his findings.

As seen in the video provided above, in 1953, as a piece now infamous in every college art history class covering the hard-living New York School of the Abstract Expressionism movement, Rauschenberg created "Erased de Kooning Drawing" where he did exactly as the title suggests.

Rauschenberg's later pieces branched out greatly from his early days as a painter. In addition to his early contributions to Installation, he applied his unique perspective to everything from printmaking and photography to set design and music composition. He even designed the album art for the Talking Heads 1983 album Speaking in Tongues.

Featured image is "Estate", Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas from 1963 currently owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.