Review by Choice Review
Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was one of the most prolific and influential American artists of the 20th century, and his wide-ranging practices encompassed painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, mixed media, performance, set design, electronic technologies, and various admixtures of the foregoing. Rauschenberg traversed artistic spaces, audiences, and practices fluidly (and often profoundly--as in his combines), with verve, material skill, intuitive grasp, and transformational effect. In this catalogue of a retrospective exhibit at the Tate Modern (London), Rauschenberg appears ever in motion. The volume highlights significant points of contact and collaboration on Rauschenberg's part with artists, artworks, ideas, and fellow travelers ranging from Josef Albers, Cy Twombly, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Susan Weil to Trisha Brown, Paul Taylor, Jean Tinguely, Billy Kluver, and Robert Smithson. Beginning in his late 1940s student days at North Carolina's Black Mountain College and continuing through to the ambitious globalizing efforts of his Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Institute (ROCI) in the 1980s, Rauschenberg was a noble element--widely engaged and catalyzing, yet steadfastly individualistic. This lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue is structured around concise essays by the likes of Yves-Alain Bois, Hal Foster, Mark Godfrey, Michelle Kuo, Pamela Lee, Helen Molesworth, and Kate Nesin. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Eric Baden, Warren Wilson College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Early in the career of American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), critics derided his work as "Dada shenanigans," but this muscular exhibition catalogue, occasioned by a major retrospective (organized by London's Tate Modern and New York's Museum of Modern Art), demonstrates that his art had breadth, depth, and lasting cultural resonance. Edited by Dickerman, a curator at MoMA, and Borchardt-Hume, the director of operations at the Tate, this book's 18 brief, chronologically arranged essays trace the trajectory of Rauschenberg's career from his formative years at Black Mountain College in North Carolina to his final years of experimentation with digital media. The authors reveal that his works, far from random, were often deeply suffused with social commentary. His Glut series from 1986 to 1995 responded to both the Texas oil crisis of the 1980s and information overload. And his ambitious series of 34 illustrations for Dante's Inferno used the process of solvent transfer to brazenly people the cantos of Dante's Hell with relevant contemporary social and political figures appropriated from the newspaper (Nixon, for example, appears in the circle of violence against neighbors). In an effort to initiate cross-cultural dialogue across diverse ideological borders, Rauschenberg launched the Overseas Culture Interchange, a traveling series of exhibitions in which Communist, totalitarian, and developing nations shared their art with one another. Lavishly illustrated, this is a sumptuously and beautifully produced catalogue of an artist who managed to speak to real-world issues by appropriating the overlooked detritus of everyday life. 436 color illus. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Review by Library Journal Review
There have been previous retrospectives (the last in 1997) of American postwar artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), but this catalog of an exhibition jointly organized by London's Tate Modern and New York's Museum of Modern Art is the first posthumous survey, treating the full span of his extraordinary career. Rauschenberg's interdisciplinary approach and interest in art-as-performance defined an exhilarating new style, emulated by creators today. Although somewhat lengthy, this title is a pleasure to browse, with attractive layouts, excellent black-and-white and color photos of his work, portraits of the artist, images of ephemeral items such as notes penned by Rauschenberg, and more. The exhibitions' lead curators, -Dickerman and Borchardt-Hume, with over a dozen additional writers, address every phase of Rauschenberg's career in 16 essays. The range of media in which he worked is dizzying: collage; painting; his unique sculpture/painting "combines"; screen printing; choreography; and art/technology experiments, among others, but the title's organization adroitly steers the reader through it all. The essays are footnoted and should be commended for clarity and directness. VERDICT Highly recommended both for newcomers to a figure who redefined art, as well as serious students.-Michael Dashkin, New York © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
