Robert Rauschenberg
When I arrived in Heathrow tonight, one of the first emails I noticed on my phone was a news alert from the New York Times: “Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82.” A sad day.
I’m a huge Rauschenberg fan — as much for the way he lived his life as for the art he produced. He was relentless. He worked in just about every medium and kept producing and innovating until the very end of his life.The NYT obit does a good job of capturing that approach. But if you want more, I recommend Calvin Tomkins’s outstanding short biography Off the Wall. Here’s my favorite anecdote from that book:
“The day after he won the Biennial, Rauschenberg telephoned from Venice to a friend in New York, a Judson dancer named Tony Hodder who occasionally helped out in his studio. He asked Hodder to go to the Broadway loft, cut the old silk screens out of their wooden frames, and burn them. (Rauschenberg had just won one of the art world’s most prestigious awards for these silk screens. — Ed.) There were about a hundred and fifty screens all told, representing a sizable financial investment as well as a rich bank of images. Destroying them was a form of insurance against repeating himself.”
Rauschenberg’s right brain was surely bringing through some bold, original, and influential images and ideas. Your point about the way he pushed his own talent is an important element in the life of an innovator. Original minds have no one to report to but themselves and the source of their energy, since they hold a vision no one else sees yet. Creators need to set their own standards and maintain vigilance by their own lights. A strong and nourishing connection with a larger creative power makes this possible.
And by the way, compliments on your new site design, Dan.
I had the rare opportunity to visit his studio in Florida four years ago. Quite a thrill. What struck me most while was there; I was half his age and less than half productive.
In the back of my mind it remains; not only is it important to have great ideas, you have to act upon them or they flutter away.
Seeing the enormity of work that this man had produced put me to shame. I am still working on taking ideas to fruition, but as we all know creative folks tend to focus on ideas and the structure of accomplishing them tends to be the harder accomplishment. HELP.
Dear Mr. Pink,
I heard you speak at the NAEA convention, in New York, a couple of years ago. I thought you were, by far, one of the BEST speakers I’ve ever had the opportunity to hear. When I ‘speak’ to more than one person, an audience, I always remember your mantra: “Brevity, Levity and Repetition”.
I actually have the opportunity to work with diverse audiences with an art program called Visual Thinking Strategies. It aligns, in many ways, with what you are espousing, using the right side of your brain and thinking outside of the box. It’s a program which uses art to teach a number of skills but more importantly it aids young viewers in helping them to make MEANING from a work of art. It uses the resource, which is so underutilized in schools, ones eyes, to make sense out of a work of art and ultimately, the world.
Please check out the website VUE.org, visualthinkingstrategies.org and vtskids.org to find out more about this innovative and revolutionary teaching methodology.
Thank you,
Hope