Robert Rauschenberg Composer

Biography

Robert Rauschenberg was born on October 22, 1925, in Port Arthur, Texas. He began studying pharmacy before being drafted during World War II. After his service, he turned to the arts, attending the Kansas City Art Institute, the Académie Julian in Paris, and Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he crossed paths with figures such as Josef Albers, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham. A major American artist of the 20th century, Rauschenberg is associated with the Neo-Dada and Abstract Expressionist movements and is considered a precursor of Pop Art.

From the 1950s, he explored the boundaries between art and everyday life, combining found objects, photographic images, painting, collage, and silkscreen. Among his early experiments were the White Paintings (1951): white canvases “that respond to light and atmosphere.” In 1953–54, he executed one of his famous provocative gestures: erasing a drawing by De Kooning (Erased de Kooning Drawing). He later developed the “Combine Painting,” in which paint and objects coexist on the same surface.

In parallel, Rauschenberg collaborated with dance and performance: from 1954 to 1964, he served as artistic director of the Merce Cunningham Company, designing sets, costumes, and lighting. During his career, he co-founded the organization Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) in 1966 with engineer Billy Klüver, aiming to bring artists and engineers together.

His work reached beyond the United States, with international projects and exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1981), the Guggenheim (1997), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005). Living on Captiva Island, Florida, while maintaining a studio in New York, he also led a philanthropic life, supporting medical research and emerging artists. He passed away on May 12, 2008.

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