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Lot Essay
Nettle belongs to an important group of the first Combine paintings made by Rauschenberg at the end of the 1950s. For the artist, his invention of the "Combine" allowed himself to be freed from the dominance of Abstract Expressionism and to pursue a new kind of art that encouraged the open interplay between the hermetic world of art and the insistence of the chaotic, material world. At the time, Rauschenberg was very close to Jasper Johns, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham. They would often meet and discuss their works, as Rauschenberg recalls, to explore "all the possibilities" of art. (Quoted in M. L. Kotz, Rauschenberg/Art and Life, New York, 1990, p. 89).
What especially appealed to Rauschenberg during this fertile period of experimentation was the exchange of ideas among the disciplines of painting, dance, and music. He believed that a meaningful engagement between the work of art and the viewer necessitated breaking down the barrier between art and life. "For Cage and Rauschenberg, the purpose of art was not to create enduring masterpieces for an elite, but to further a perpetual process of discovery in which everyone could participate. They wanted to break down all barriers between art and life. Rauschenberg wrote, 'Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in that gap between the two.)' Art, said Cage, should be an affirmation of life-not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply wake up to the very life we're living.'" (Quoted in M. L. Kotz, Rauschenberg/Art and Life, New York, 1990, p. 89).
By adhering to this philosophy, Rauschenberg's Combine paintings, like Nettle, incorporate found objects from the everyday world, by directly attaching the objects on the painted canvas. This act of provocation obliterates previously known aesthetic precepts and recalls the Dadaist collage practice of bringing together disparate elements. In Nettle, a large canvas with patchy areas of gestural brushwork is shown with a metal chain attached to the center of the painting that connects to a piece of crushed metal that rests on the floor. He successfully alludes to the bravura of de Kooning and Kline's brushstrokes and at the same time, mocks their personal gesture by having the crushed metal element mimic the "heroic gesture." Rauschenberg's ambivalence toward Abstract Expressionism manifests simultaneously into an homage as well as critique.
Furthermore, the three-dimensional element of the chain and metal piece inhabits the same space as the viewer. One is forced to deal with the volumetric space of the objects, to observe the tactility of the metal and to conjure up various associations of a hanging chain and metal, for instance, a metal chain on a door lock. The perception of this work solely as a painting no longer holds true, and it must be reckoned as sculpture also. The chain and crushed metal has the potential to move--to swing like a pendulum--to literally "activate" the painted field.
Rauschenberg, more than any other American artist of the 20th century, has masterfully opened up the potential of the incorporating elements of everyday life into painting and thus into art. As one critic has astutely commented, "Life has penetrated his work through and through, and each work, rather than imposing a definition of art, springs from a question about the possible contexts in which art can happen" (A. Forge, Rauschenberg, New York, 1978, p. 14).
Fig. 1 Rauschenberg in his Front Studio, 1958
Photograph by Kay Harris
c Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Fig. 2 Rauschenberg making the combine First Time Painting on stage at the American Embassy in Paris
Photograph by Harry Shunk
c Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
What especially appealed to Rauschenberg during this fertile period of experimentation was the exchange of ideas among the disciplines of painting, dance, and music. He believed that a meaningful engagement between the work of art and the viewer necessitated breaking down the barrier between art and life. "For Cage and Rauschenberg, the purpose of art was not to create enduring masterpieces for an elite, but to further a perpetual process of discovery in which everyone could participate. They wanted to break down all barriers between art and life. Rauschenberg wrote, 'Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in that gap between the two.)' Art, said Cage, should be an affirmation of life-not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply wake up to the very life we're living.'" (Quoted in M. L. Kotz, Rauschenberg/Art and Life, New York, 1990, p. 89).
By adhering to this philosophy, Rauschenberg's Combine paintings, like Nettle, incorporate found objects from the everyday world, by directly attaching the objects on the painted canvas. This act of provocation obliterates previously known aesthetic precepts and recalls the Dadaist collage practice of bringing together disparate elements. In Nettle, a large canvas with patchy areas of gestural brushwork is shown with a metal chain attached to the center of the painting that connects to a piece of crushed metal that rests on the floor. He successfully alludes to the bravura of de Kooning and Kline's brushstrokes and at the same time, mocks their personal gesture by having the crushed metal element mimic the "heroic gesture." Rauschenberg's ambivalence toward Abstract Expressionism manifests simultaneously into an homage as well as critique.
Furthermore, the three-dimensional element of the chain and metal piece inhabits the same space as the viewer. One is forced to deal with the volumetric space of the objects, to observe the tactility of the metal and to conjure up various associations of a hanging chain and metal, for instance, a metal chain on a door lock. The perception of this work solely as a painting no longer holds true, and it must be reckoned as sculpture also. The chain and crushed metal has the potential to move--to swing like a pendulum--to literally "activate" the painted field.
Rauschenberg, more than any other American artist of the 20th century, has masterfully opened up the potential of the incorporating elements of everyday life into painting and thus into art. As one critic has astutely commented, "Life has penetrated his work through and through, and each work, rather than imposing a definition of art, springs from a question about the possible contexts in which art can happen" (A. Forge, Rauschenberg, New York, 1978, p. 14).
Fig. 1 Rauschenberg in his Front Studio, 1958
Photograph by Kay Harris
c Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Fig. 2 Rauschenberg making the combine First Time Painting on stage at the American Embassy in Paris
Photograph by Harry Shunk
c Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY