PARIS, FRANCE.- The Centre Pompidou presents the exhibit Robert Rauschenberg: Combines, on view through January 15, 2007. The most complete survey of these unique works ever mounted, this exhibition features more than 70 key Combines created between 1954–1964, an exceptionally productive period in Robert Rauschenberg’s career. From the early 1950s on, Rauschenberg broke down traditional boundaries between painting and sculpture and forged new ground in a multitude of media to invent an artistic expression uniquely his own. MOCA has the largest collection of the Combines, 11 in all, including Untitled (Man with White Shoes), Factum 1, Coca-Cola Plan, and Interview, which provide the foundation for an in-depth and focused examination of these works. The exhibition is curated by MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. Robert Rauschenberg:

In 1964, after years of domination by the Paris School, Robert Rauschenberg won the prize for painting at the Venice Biennial. American art, having finally shed its mantle of abstract expressionism, won the day, in the person of an artist who is known for incorporating masses of everyday objects into his work. Pieces of fabric or of paper, ties, postcards, fragments of parachutes, copies of great masters, stuffed animals, etc., are all combined together, jumbled up with paint and with the canvas to create imposing and highly alternative works: the Combines.