Robert Rauschenberg
Harriet Zinnes
The artist Robert Rauschenberg hardly needs an introduction. Since the mid-Sixties
his work has absorbed attention. Perhaps it is his “Combines” that
held together painting and found objects that still remain his most prized works.
His interests are never single. He juxtaposes lithography, painting, photography,
silk-screening along even with sculpture to make his signature work. And behind
the work there always seems to be a mystery as if even the artist who is making
the art object wonders at its embodiment. It is not surprising, therefore, that
his new show through May 3, 2003 at Pace Wildenstein (32 East 57 Street, New
York City), is called “Short Stories: You Are the Author.”
And it isn’t
as if the artist is being playful, eager to make a joke out of the very objects
in his paintings. One looks at the work, and on the canvases there is seemingly
no mystery. There are men, women, clocks, vegetables, signs, buildings, armchairs,
a waiter with a tray, etc. An abundance of things, almost a survey of a life
lived in a welter of forms and colors and letters half hidden in a city or in
a town near water. Whether it is a yellow rectangle or a lonely bird lingering
on a quiet blue water, all is there for you, the author. And what will your story
be? o
