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ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG | Photem Series 1 #29
估價
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
招標截止
描述
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Photem Series 1 #29
- signed, titled and dated 81 on the reverse
- gelatin silver print collage on board, mounted on shaped aluminium
- 125 by 59 cm. 49 1/4 by 23 1/4 in.
來源
Galería Weber, Alexander y Cobo, Madrid
Private Collection
Christie's, New York, 1 April 2008, Lot 223
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Private Collection
Christie's, New York, 1 April 2008, Lot 223
Acquired from the above by the present owner
展覽
Madrid, Galería Weber, Alexander y Cobo, Robert Rauschenberg, Photems/ Fotografías, February - April 1993, p. 40, illustrated
Condition
Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly cooler in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. All collaged elements are stable. Extremely close inspection in raking light, reveals a fine an extremely fine pattern of craquelure throughout, which is associated with the artist's working process and to be expected in the artist's work from this period. Very close inspection reveals a few minute specs of loss, mostly to the extreme edges of the work and towards the lower center of the right edge and towards the lower center of the left edge.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."
拍品資料及來源
“Rauschenberg's position in the world of painting has so overshadowed his role as a photographic innovator that he is usually overlooked in discussions of the history of photography. Yet his achievement as a painter is essentially photographic in method. His painting recapitulates the sensibility of the major photographers of the fifties, parallels photography's preoccupations of the sixties, and anticipates the 'mixed-media' and conceptual work of the 1970s” (Jonathan Green, American Photography: A Critical History, 1945 to the Present, 1984, p. 131). Totemic in form and mounted upon aluminium, Robert Rauschenberg’s Photems abolish the line between photography and sculpture. Rauschenberg has never been one to shy away from unorthodox combinations; his renowned Combines fused painting and sculpture together in ways that shocked audiences and reinvented the medium. Photem Series 1 #29 is a key example of the artist’s photographic investigation, uniting his experimentation of mediums with his interest in American life and culture.
Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Rauschenberg went on to become one of the pillars of contemporary American painting. It was at Black Mountain College, under the watchful eye of Josef Albers, where Rauschenberg was first taught of the wonders of photography. In fact, Rauschenberg went on to spend his career toying between being a painter and a photographer. Rauschenberg developed an obsession with an impossible project: to photograph his country inch by inch.
In Photem Series 1 #29, three images of American life are merged together, each of which touch on the key concerns for Rauschenberg; light, surface and texture. A shovel, drenched in the morning light, grounds the work at its base. Its handle guides the eye upwards as it merges with the wooden fences of the middle image. Atop the work, a wooden bench stands tall like an altar. Joined without margins or separation, the three images offer a snapshot into American life, untouched by Rauschenberg’s hand, observed only by his eye.
The name of the series – Photems – implies a combination of ‘photos’ and ‘totems’. Vertical and often monumental in size, the Photems take on the form of historical totems: a symbol of a community, a repository of life. Rauschenberg’s clan, the urban clan, keeps its memory in the form of photographs, fragments of American existence. Photographs are an imprint of reality and Rauschenberg, by placing his photographs on a metallic surface, imbues the images with its own reflectivity. Thus, the present work not only addresses Rauschenberg’s key concerns as an artist but contemplates the medium of photography as a whole. The Photems become symbols of urban life, totems of the modern experience.
Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Rauschenberg went on to become one of the pillars of contemporary American painting. It was at Black Mountain College, under the watchful eye of Josef Albers, where Rauschenberg was first taught of the wonders of photography. In fact, Rauschenberg went on to spend his career toying between being a painter and a photographer. Rauschenberg developed an obsession with an impossible project: to photograph his country inch by inch.
In Photem Series 1 #29, three images of American life are merged together, each of which touch on the key concerns for Rauschenberg; light, surface and texture. A shovel, drenched in the morning light, grounds the work at its base. Its handle guides the eye upwards as it merges with the wooden fences of the middle image. Atop the work, a wooden bench stands tall like an altar. Joined without margins or separation, the three images offer a snapshot into American life, untouched by Rauschenberg’s hand, observed only by his eye.
The name of the series – Photems – implies a combination of ‘photos’ and ‘totems’. Vertical and often monumental in size, the Photems take on the form of historical totems: a symbol of a community, a repository of life. Rauschenberg’s clan, the urban clan, keeps its memory in the form of photographs, fragments of American existence. Photographs are an imprint of reality and Rauschenberg, by placing his photographs on a metallic surface, imbues the images with its own reflectivity. Thus, the present work not only addresses Rauschenberg’s key concerns as an artist but contemplates the medium of photography as a whole. The Photems become symbols of urban life, totems of the modern experience.