Robert Rauschenberg No More

Just clicked on the NYT website to see the headline, "Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82."

Here is the full article (4 pages online!) from the NYT. I don't know enough about RR to say a whole lot other than Black Mountain, Jasper Johns, combines, creative, smart, inspirational, genius, etc. But there are so many people who have said it so much better than I. At Bloomberg, an appreciation.

One of my faves of his is Bed, to the left. I love that since he was too poor to buy canvas, he used his quilt. I heard from art history profs, but again it wasn't my research area, that the quilt was furthermore from the bed where he slept with Johns, and so that was just as shocking or titillating to many in the art world. (Teh gay!)

And here's a nice blog post arguing against the dismissal of a wide swath of the country (Rauschenberg came from a small town in Texas) by coastal folks. Well, NY and LA folks. Oregon's just as much flyover country to them as Texas, Iowa, or Utah.

Here's a YouTube video in which the man himself discusses the famous Erased de Kooning:

R.I.P., Robert Rauschenberg.