TAMPA, FLA.- The Tampa Museum of Art announced the opening of one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008), who defined his oeuvre by using ordinary, non-traditional materials to create distinct works of art.

His “combines” hovered between painting and sculpture, and incorporated a range of media and techniques. Rauschenberg often used photography in his work and layered images to render provocative narratives or observations about the world around him. Suite 1 from (America Mix-16), 1983, a portfolio of 16 photogravures, features photographs of found vignettes or objects Rauschenberg encountered during his travels around the U.S. He found beauty in the mundane, such as a dilapidated rag hanging from the gas cap of an abandoned truck or the inadvertent still life of trashed objects resting on the curb. Rarely exhibited from the Tampa Museum of Art’s collection, the entirety of this portfolio will be on view through January 5, 2020.

Joanna Robotham, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, states, “Robert Rauschenberg’s portfolio America Mix-16 reflects Rauschenberg’s passion for photography. While his contributions to painting and sculpture have been widely celebrated, Rauschenberg’s explorations in photography are not well known. This exhibition highlights the artist’s photography practice and explores the significance of the found object in Rauschenberg’s oeuvre.”

The portfolio America Mix-16 features imagery from sixteen photographs taken by Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008) during his travels across the United States. As a young artist, Rauschenberg aspired be to a photographer and it was photography, not painting, that excited him. A close look at Rauschenberg’s work reveals photography at the essence of his artistic practice. The pictures in America Mix-16 illustrate Rauschenberg’s ability to capture the poetics of every day moments and the beauty of discarded or found objects. Moreover, the images mirror the ideas explored in Rauschenberg’s paintings and sculptures, with the artist aiming to capture the various textures, shapes, and materials encountered in our everyday lives.

Rauschenberg initially studied photography at Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina and his ultimate goal was to photograph America “inch by inch.” However, after realizing the unlikelihood of completing the project, Rauschenberg shifted to painting and trained with artist Josef Albers. For several years, Rauschenberg incorporated found photographs from books, magazines, and newspapers into his art, rather than use his own images. After nearly a 15-year hiatus, in 1979, Rauschenberg picked up a camera and rediscovered his love for photography. He revisited his idea of capturing every inch of the country and embarked on a road trip. Rauschenberg scaled back his original concept by focusing on a select group of cities: Boston, New York, Baltimore, Charleston, Los Angeles, and Fort Myers, near his studio on Captiva Island. America Mix-16 incorporates several of Rauschenberg’s images from this road trip. Rauschenberg collaborated with Master Printer Deli Sacilotto, the principal of Iris Editions in New York City to create this unique suite of work. In the early 1980s, Sacilotto was exploring photogravure, a printmaking technique developed in the 1850s to mass reproduce photographs in books and magazines at a high quality. Thus, while the images in America Mix-16 feature Rauschenberg’s photographs, the object itself is a print. Here, the photogravure process further emphasizes the rich tonal contrasts of light and dark in Rauschenberg’s original photograph. In this portfolio, one sees the sublime beauty of the American landscape through Rauschenberg’s eyes.