Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) Centennial Certificate, for Metropolitan Museum of Art , 1970 Color offset lithographic poster, from the edition of unknown size with text, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, published by Telamon Editions, Ltd., West Islip, New York, with margins, in very good condition aside from colors faded, framed. image & text 35 x 24 3/4in sheet 39 x 29 1/2in Property from the Sonesta International Hotels Corporation

Lot Description Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) Untitled (scorpion and plant) printed paper, engravings, fabric, glue and paper collage on paper 10 1/8 x 4 3/8 in. (25.7 x 11.1 cm.) Executed circa 1952. Provenance Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner Pre-Lot Text Property from the Collection of Susan Weil Exhibited Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art; Houston, The Menil Collection; Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and New York and Soho, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s, June 1991-August 1992, p. 132, pl. 80 (illustrated in color). New York, Craig F. Starr Associates, Robert Rauschenberg: North African Collages and Scatole Personali c. 1952, June-August 2012, n.p., pl. 13 (illustrated in color). View Lot Notes > From the Collection of Susan Weil, Robert Rauschenberg's four important early works point not only to a pivotal moment in his career, but also to the relationship that profoundly transformed Rauschenberg's artistic method. Susan Weil and Robert Rauschenberg first met in Paris in 1948, living on the same pension in Montparnasse and both attending the Académie Julian. Weil remembered, "He was from Texas, trying out art school in Kansas City. And, then he went to the Acadmie after World War II. He knew nothing about art, except that it was for him" (S. Weil, "Susan Weil Interviewed by Laurie Marshall," p.9). They soon became inseparable-taking to the streets and wandering throughout Pairs with their sketch pads and oil crayons. In the fall, Weil left Paris for Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and Rauschenberg soon followed. Having read about Josef Albers, the Head of Black Mountain College (who had formerly lead the Bauhaus) in Time magazine, Rauschenberg decided Albers' doctrine of restraint and control was exactly what his painting needed. He later remarked, "I was willing to submerge any desires I had into his discipline" (R. Rauschenberg, quoted in C. Tompkins, Off the Wall, New York, 2005, p. 28). In fact, Albers took notice of Rauschenberg and Weil as well, nicknaming them, "the Bobbsey twins." The couple also studied under Anni Albers, Willem de Kooning, and alongside fellow students John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Franz Kline and Kenneth Noland. Spending the entire summer at Weil's family home on Outer Island, Connecticut, Weil introduced Rauschenberg to her method of exposing blueprint paper. The couple married in 1950, and moved into a tiny apartment on West 96th Street, collaborating on a number of extraordinary projects, most notably the Blueprint series of 1951, 125 as chronicled by Life magazine. Their son Christopher was born in 1951. While in New York, Rauschenberg took classes at the Art Students League, where he met Cy Twombly, who joined the couple at Black Mountain. The following year, Twombly traveled to Europe on a grant from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and urged Rauschenberg to join. Perhaps one of the most fabled journeys in the history of modern art is the legendary retreat of Rauschenberg and Twombly to Italy and Morocco in the summer of 1952. Going first to Rome, Rauschenberg explored Rome's vibrant art scene, however as money became scarce he sought employment in North Africa. There his wages were low, the travel constant, and accommodations scarce, he was forced to pack and carry his materials with him-so his works became necessarily portable. He began creating small, hanging assemblages and boxes filled with found, primitive-looking objects. Returning to Rome, these works were exhibited at the Galleria del Obelisco in Rome, the gallery owner described Rauschenberg's curiosities, "Fetticci personale et scatole collective." The collages resulting from his explorations in Rome and North Africa in 1952 and 1953, are among the most informative creations in the artist's oeuvre, providing insight into his own artistic voyage. Rauschenberg used cardboards saved from his laundered shirts to provide a surface on which to build and layer images and materials. In Untitled (scorpion and plant), printed imagery from antiquated anatomy and zoology books traces Rauschenberg's journey through the exotic landscape of North Africa, while fragments of Arabic newspapers relate his enduring interests back home-as they relate the news of General Eisenhower's inaugural address in 1953 and Queen Elizabeth's new role as monarch. In Untitled (Elongated X-form) and Untitled (X-form) the dreamy collages have a tactility that recalls Albers matire studies at Black Mountain. Their shadowy X-marks drawn in crayon overlay faintly-colored printed images of leaves and twigs that draw on the iconography of his and Weil's early blueprint painting, Untitled [Feet + Foliage]. As early as 1951, Rauschenberg incorporated the surrounding environment into his work, by his White Paintings series, in which smooth, uninflected surfaces capture the patterns and reflections of light and shadow. These four with their intense focus on materiality and their use of found materials including silk, newsprint, paper and cloth anticipate the layered surfaces of his Red Paintings and later, his iconic Combines. Presented to her upon Rauschenberg's return to New York, each of the four collages pays tribute to Weil, who became a notable artist in her own right. Her crucial role in Rauschenberg's art is evident, as they mirror her own Neo-Dadaist impulse and use of found materials. Emerging as one of the leading artistic couples of the 1950s, Weil and Rauschenberg together pursued an aesthetic that would change the face of modern art. In the Untitled [scorpion and plant], Rauschenberg collages delicate fabric with exotic imagery collected during his travels through Morocco and Italy. This work was exhibited at the Menil Collection's exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Influenced by the flotsam and jetsam of flea markets, Rauschenberg pieced together his materials on stiff paper shirt-boards, he juxtaposes Arabic newspaper fragments with antiquated zoology prints of a budding plant and a scorpion. The tactile frays possess poetic tactility, as they anticipate his use of fabric on his high-relief canvases. According to Walter Hopps, "The imagist implications of these collages would powerfully reemerge later in the 1950s. Many stand as small-scale paradigms for his future Combines" (ibid, p. 112).

Lot Description Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) Untitled (locomotive) engravings, tissue paper, fabric, gouache, adhesive and printed paper collage on paper 7 7/8 x 8 5/8 in. (20 x 21.9 cm.) Executed circa 1952. Provenance Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner Pre-Lot Text Property from the Collection of Susan Weil Literature E. Bryant, "100 Years of Collage," Art & Auction, October 2012, p. 114 (illustrated in color). Exhibited Madrid, Fundación Juan March; Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, Rauschenberg, February-May 1985. Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; Houston, The Menil Collection; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s, June 1991-January 1993, p. 132, pl. 81 (illustrated in color). New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Houston, The Menil Collection; Cologne, Museum Ludwig; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective, September 1997-March 1999, p. 68, pl. 29 (illustrated in color). New York, Craig F. Starr Associates, Robert Rauschenberg: North African Collages and Scatole Personali c. 1952, June-August 2012, pl. 33 (illustrated in color). View Lot Notes > The four important early works that Robert Rauschenberg gifted Susan Weil after returning from his travels between Rome and North Africa point not only to a pivotal instant in Rauschenberg's career, but also an intense partnership in life and art. Rauschenberg met Weil in Paris in 1948, the two were living in the same pension in Mountparnasse and attending school at the Académie Julian. Quickly realizing they did not have to study in Paris to be artists, the two began an extraordinary relationship--taking to the streets and wandering around with their sketch pads and oil crayons. That August, Susan departed for Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and Rauschenberg followed, excited to receive a disciplined education from Joseph Albers, a veteran of the Bauhaus. The two studied there together under John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and Josef and Anni Albers for the 1948 and 1949 academic year. Together they engaged in many artistic collaborations, most notably the Blueprint paintings of 1950, and after getting married in June of 1950, the two returned to Black Mountain for the 1951 and 1952 summer sessions with their friend Cy Twombly. Emerging as one of the leading artistic couples of the 1950s, Weil and Rauschenberg together pursued an aesthetic that would change the face of modern art. Perhaps the most fabled journey in the history of modern art, the legendary retreat that Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly embarked on in the summer of 1952 for eight months, produced a stunning series of thirty-three intimate collages. Travelling through Europe and North Africa, the two initially survived on Twombly's grant from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, living together in a flat on the Piazza di Spagna, at the foot of the Spanish steps. Yet, it soon became clear that Twombly's grant was not going to support two people for very long. Leaving Twombly in Rome, Rauschenberg set off for Northern Africa to seek employment. Inhibited by his own circumstances--limited funds, constant traveling, scarce accommodations and the demands of menial jobs--Rauschenberg was forced to pack and carry his materials with him. An important relic of both his explorations in Rome and Northern Africa, as well as the fundamental key in his own artistic voyage, the small, personal assemblages rendered atop cardboard saved from laundered shirts, are among the most informative creations in the artist's oeuvre. Whereas most of the works from this series borrow their cut-and-paste printed images from antiquated anatomy and zoology books, perhaps none more reflective of this grand tour, Untitled (locomotive), possesses significant iconography, in the form of a steam engine. A dream document, assembled on a romantic expedition, surreal, light, and rich with prognosticative information, Untitled (locomotive) is marked by both the camaraderie and marvel of travel. Constructed to abide by Rauschenberg's tendency to generate rectilinear configurations, Untitled (locomotive) is at once austere, minimal, and rich with imagistic iconography. Evidence of his time spent browsing antique bookstalls and flea markets, the assemblage is dominated by a centrally pasted book engraving diagraming a nineteenth century French steam train designed by Charles Derosne and Jean-Francois Cail. A hunter-gather artist, Rauschenberg mounted his findings on delicate, almost fragile locally found paper. Below the upper horizontal band, occupied by a collaged strip of gauze emerging from behind a subtle layer of tanned paper, a surreal column of found imagist materials is stacked one on top of the other and employed in a way to reflect their origins. Exhibiting his own innate fascination with the diversity of signs and objects found both in the modern and primitive environments which surrounded him in Rome and Morocco, Rauschenberg's fragmentary use of printed Arabic, red silk, and mystic anatomical iconography demonstrates the integral expansion of his own lexicon of found objects on which he would later rely. By means of the most subtle shifts in color, texture, and surface structure, the carefully layered paper, tissues, silks and cardboards achieve a shallow relief that is nonetheless pronounced given the intimate scale of the work. Yet, as vigorous an editor as he was a collector, the foremost salient feature of Untitled (locomotive) is its sparseness. Existing potentially as hand-held objects, Rauschenberg never sought to frame these early collages. While treating them as miniature reliefs may impart his tendency not to frame them, further implications are found in the playful hinged elements that alter the overall composition to uncover unexpected material beneath. In its own whimsical manner, two features of Untitled (locomotive) lift upward to reveal veiled imagery. Below the locomotive rail, a delicate fragment of sandy tissue raises to expose a clipping of elegant Italian penmanship. Conversely mirroring the concealed scrawl, which Rauschenberg undoubtedly captured on his journey through Rome, the extract of Arabic, assuredly collected while in Morocco, flips open to reveal a golden illustration of a classical female draped in robes marked on either side by rudimentary trees of Rauschenberg's own creation. Ranging from abstract to specific, the imagery and technique employed in these early assemblages unites to serve a central compositional purpose. As a result, all active materials comprising Untitled (locomotive) must be examined for their aesthetic distinction. Here, glue, the essential adhesive component reaches beyond its innate properties to function as the primary fluid staining material. Intentionally commissioned along the outer edge of the central component, the glue not only fastens the engraving to the paper backing, but creates a highly calculated gradient along the bottom of the track, subtly revealing an abstracted, almost surreal, cadence of disjointed text. Presaging his future work, most notably the Combines of the mid-1950s, these early shirtboard collages provide the blueprint for his iconic sculptural assemblages. Equally as important for its constituting elements as for its function, Untitled (locomotive) anticipates what is to come. While the swatch of magnificent red silk foretells Rauschenberg's subsequent Red Paintings, the cut-and-paste printed images remind the viewer of the imagistic quality of his Combines and prints. Even more, the whimsical hinged devices prophesy later types of mutability that allowed for the repositioning of elements within a work, seen in both aspects of opened or closed, seen or not seen, particularly noted in such 1955 combines as Interview and Short Circuit. It is in these early collages from Europe and North Africa that Rauschenberg establishes the general foundation of his visual language for the entirety of his artistic career. While the art of the previous decade was grounded in the medium of painting exercised on a monumental platform, Robert Rauschenberg, seeking to break the tradition, focused his aesthetic on a more intimate scale with personalized and image based intentions. Limited to work on a scale he could comfortably carry throughout his grand journey between Europe and North Africa, Rauschenberg came to rely on the small strips of cardboard found among freshly washed shirts. One of only three surviving collages not mounted on the paperboard element, Untitled (locomotive) adopts the same portable format, carefully preserved by its creator. A small-scale paradigm for his future creations, Untitled (locomotive) marks a highly personal journey, both in the artist's life and the development of his career.

Robert Rauschenberg United States 1925-2008 "Sky Garden", from: "Stoned moon series". Lithograph and silkscreen in colours, 1969-70, on Arjomari paper, signed in pencil and numbered 10/35, printed and published by Gemini G.E.L., New York. 225 x 105 cm. Unexamined out of frame. Estimate: SEK 200 000 - 220 000

Lot 201 Robert Rauschenberg American, 1925-2008 Inroads , 1981 Signed Rauschenberg, and dated 1981 (ll) Cloth and paper collage with acrylic, gouache and solvent transfer on paper 60 1/2 x 34 inches (153.7 x 86.4 cm) Rauschenberg studio number 81.D043 Provenance: The artist's studio Gifted to a studio assistant Private collection, New York C Estate of Judith E. Siegel-Baum Estimate $80,000-120,000 Pinholes at corners. Three small dings at edge of sheet, 14 inches up from lower left corner. Brown paper adhered to paint surface at upper right, lower right and right of center. Hinged to backing at edges, verso. The artwork is floated in the frame thus was not examined out of frame. Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging.