After reading Tomkins' piece on Robert Rauschenberg, I was left slightly confused as to the unique qualities of his work. I understood that he really focused on changing his work, in terms of medium of painting, the materials, as well as his attention to the fine line between art and life, however, unlike the other artists that we have read about, with very distinct, dare i say, "mission statements", this biography didn't seem to be quite as clearly laid forth. Upon review, however, i began to realize that his very questioning of the medium, and all aspects of his work, including the meaning, is what truly separates him from other painters of the time. Rather than repeat a theme, or explore the depths of a theme in series of works, Rauschenberg strives to simply "move on". He explains this in an interesting way towards the end of the article. "When a painting is finished it's already something I've done, no longer something I'm doing, and it's not so interesting any more...The point is, I just paint in order to learn something new about painting, and everything I learn always resolves itself into two of three pictures". This quote in a sense sums up my still slightly fuzzy understanding of him and his work.
No comments:
Post a Comment