[Cage, John. (1912–1992)] Rauschenberg, Robert. (1925–2008)
"Cage" - Color Screenprint with Collage on Paper
Cage, 1983, edition of 125, printed by Styria Studio, New York. Signed, numbered, and dated "RAUSCHENBERG 93/125 83" within the image l.l., printer's dry stamp l.r. Color screenprint with collage on paper, image/sheet size 41 3/4 x 29 3/4 in. (105.9 x 75.5 cm), framed. Deckled edges, floated within the mat, pale foxing or staining to fabric elements."Of the artists who emerged in the 1950s, Rauschenberg's similarities to the work of John Cage have to do with the ways he calls into question the distinctions between reality and realism and between representation and the actual, and through his inclusive orientation to the environment. If Cage seemed to be annihilating the composer as the author of what we listen to in a concert, then it may be that Rauschenberg annihilates the idea of the artist or person as having a fixed and invariable core. Without that core, the self must reinvent itself in response to the environment. This idea of continual reinvention of the self leads in the same direction as Cage's chance compositions lead: but it is more complex than simply calling it openness to the environment, than calling the artist the nexus of environmental events. It is an attitude toward art which centralizes contingency, or the role of chance and unexpected events, without the abandonment of control. Pollock sought the representation of the unconscious, which was the meaning of his statement that he paints out of the unconscious. Rauschenberg constructed chance, making chance into an actuality in his art. It might be equally possible to say that he constructed contingency, in large part through the centralization of the actively engaged spectator." (Roann Barris, "Rauschenberg: The Art of Collaboration, Construction and Performance") (14486)
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