Robert Rauschenberg

Galleria Lucio Amelio, Naples
Sale: Blindarte, Naples, Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 22 May 2008, Lot 361
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Naples, Galleria Lucio Amelio, Neapolitan Gluts, 1987
Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts, 1988, p. 39, illustrated in colour
Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts, 2009, p. 48, illustrated in colour
Basel, Tinguely Museum, Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts, 2009-10, p. 48, illustrated in colour
Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum, Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts, 2010, p. 50, illustrated in colour
Varese, Villa Panza, Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts, 2010-11, p. 56, illustrated in colour
Bologna, Museo Mambo, Cara Domani: Opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, 2012, p. 21, illustrated in colour

Napoli e Dintorni, Informatore d'arte a cura di Michele Bonuomo, no. 6, April 1987, illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good and original condition. All of the elements are stable. All signs of rust, scratches and other surface irregularities are in keeping with the artist's choice of found materials and working process.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

One of the single most important artists of the Twentieth Century, the legacy of Robert Rauschenberg has undeniably become one of the most critical impulses of contemporary art history. Being one of the first to realise the seminal importance of Marcel Duchamp in the post-war years, Rauschenberg pioneered the use of ready-made objects in his early Combine works that are considered early predecessors of Pop Art and simultaneously merged the traditionally separate categories of sculpture and painting into radically new objects.

After the ground-breaking early Combine works, Rauschenberg would keep experimenting with unorthodox materials, often appropriated from the detritus of everyday life. Following the original collages of the 1950s, he produced works in cardboard and fabric, and started working extensively with metal – both as a support for his paintings and as a new body of sculptural work. This resulted in the Gluts series (1986-1995) of which the present work is part, based on found metal objects. On a visit to Houston for an exhibition in the 1980s, Rauschenberg was inspired by the economic recession that had created a surplus of supply in the oil market, and left an abundance of waste material behind. The Gluts sculptures that were created upon his return to his studio in Florida appropriated waste material from automotive and industrial trash, and transformed them into poetic and contemplative sculptures. As the artist explained: “It’s a time of glut. Greed is rampant. I’m just exposing it, trying to wake people up. I simply want to present people with their ruins. . . . I think of the Gluts as souvenirs without nostalgia. What they are really meant to do is give people an experience of looking at everything in terms of what its many possibilities might be” (Robert Rauschenberg quoted in: ‘Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts,’ Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2009, online resource).

Thirty years after Albino Spring Glut (Neapolitan) was made, its message is more important than ever: in an age of relentless consumption, there is a growing need to deal with the consequences of overproduction. Rauschenberg’s Gluts series is a powerful reminder of this, recycling discarded industrial materials into an elegantly poetic wall sculpture that stands as a testament to the artist’s radically innovative oeuvre and pioneering spirit.