Robert Rauschenberg  The “Combine” Painter

Biography  Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925  imagined himself first as a minister and later as a pharmacist.  It was in 1947, while in the U.S. Marines he discovered his aptitude for drawing and his interest in the artistic representation of everyday objects and people

Bio continued  After leaving the Marines he studied art in Paris.  But soon became disenchanted with the European art scene.  In less than a year he moved to North Carolina and studied under the country's most visionary artists and thinkers, such as Joseph Albers and Buckminster Fuller at Black Mountain College  There Rauschenberg began what was to be an artistic revolution.

And Again  Soon he left for New York to make it as a painter.  He rejected the angst and seriousness of the Abstract Expressionism which led him to search for a new way of painting.  He found his signature by embracing materials traditionally outside of the artist's reach.  In 1958, he had his first solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery, his work had moved from abstract painting to drawings like "Erased De Kooning" (1953) to what he termed "combines.“  Rauschenberg currently lives in Florida and continues to work, bringing his sense of excitement and challenge into a new century.  All bio information from:

Monogram Freestanding combine 42 x 64 x 64 1/2 in

Bed 1955 Combine painting 6'2" x 31 1/2" x 6 1/2"

Canyon 1959 Combine on canvas 81 3/4 x 70 x 24 in.

Estate 1963 Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas 96 x 70 in.

 In 1998 The Guggenheim Museum put on its largest exhibition ever with four hundred works by Rauschenberg, showcasing the breadth and beauty of his work, and its influence over the second half of the century.