TULSA, OK.- Philbrook Museum of Arts summer exhibition, Rauschenberg at Gemini, celebrates the colorful innovations in printmaking and image making by post-war giant, Robert Rauschenberg. The exhibition is on view June 12 through September 11.
For more than three decades Robert Rauschenberg created works at Gemini G.E.L., the influential workshop in West Hollywood, yielding over 250 editions of two- and three-dimensions from 1967-2001. Using materials as varied as cardboard, silk, window shades, and fluorescent lighting, as well as his own photographs of Los Angeles, Tibet, China, and Morocco. Rauschenberg joyfully pushed (and pulled) the boundaries of printmaking in scale, scope, variation, and interactivity.
Many of Rauschenbergs most famous prints, print series, and multiples are included in the exhibition, such as Booster, the artists famous X-ray self-portrait and his first print at Gemini. Monumental lithographs from the Stoned Moon series, based on the American Apollo Moon exploration program are represented, as well as his innovative Cardbird Door. Prints are also included from his two handmade paper series in the 1970s, as well as his three-dimensional editions PUBLICONS, Sling-Shots Lit series, and Borealis Shares series.
As Rauschenberg famously collapsed the traditional look and values of American paintings with his provocative multi-media collages, he shattered norms in printmaking. Originated by Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles, this exhibition traces Rauschenbergs innovations at Gemini with over 50 editions of images inspired by memories from the artists own life as well as events from the broader cultural landscape that changed with increasing rapidity after World War II.
Also, our colleagues at the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, will be hosting their own Rauschenberg exhibit this fall, Robert Rauschenberg: Prints from Universal Limited Art Editions, 1962-2008.