Robert Rauschenberg at MASS MoCA during installation of “The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece,” 1999
The above publicity image of the late Robert Rauschenberg is the only photo of anyone other than my own family that I display in my house. (It’s taped to a wall in my office.) He inspired me with the breathtaking audacity of his improbable but irresistible inventions and his feisty, rebellious spirit. As a speaker, he was as impetuous and unpredictable as his art. And I happened to be a few feet away during the legendary moment at the conclusion of the 1973 Robert Scull auction at Sotheby Parke Bernet, when Rauschenberg confronted the collector and declared: “I’ve been working my ass off just for you to make that profit!”
He was one of those artists who always came back into relevance, for good reason: His was a youthful, constantly questing spirit. Just a few months ago, at the press preview for the opening of the new New Museum, senior curator Laura Hoptman told me that Rauschenberg was one of of the main forebears for the artists in the new facility’s very favorably received inaugural show, consisting of collages and assemblages by a new generation.
I can’t agree with Michael Kimmelman, who seems to imply in his NY Times obit that the above piece, installed at MASS MoCA in 1999, “did not live up to his earlier achievements.” I regarded it as an astonishing, ingenious tour de force.