Round Sum
Artist: Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008)
Date: 1964
Dimensions:
H: 69 1/4 in. (175.9 cm); W: 49 in. (124.5 cm)
Medium: Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas.
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of the Woodward Foundation
Object number: 1976.33
Label Text:In a kind of free association sampler of the urban environment, Rauschenberg here combined spontaneous brushwork with silkscreened photos from mass media. With a palette of red, yellow, and blue printer’s ink, he recycled images—the Statue of Liberty, army helicopter, construction site, and sail boat—from his other works of this period. Some elements seem to relate to aerodynamics and flight (look for the bird imagery), while others may express concern about the troubling social and political issues of the 1960s.
Rauschenberg began to make what he called “combine paintings—a kind of collage of painted surface and actual objects—in the 1950s, incorporating found objects and personal belongings. A stuffed goat, a quilt, and Coke bottles were among the things that energized his art. The same year that Round Sum was painted, he became only the third American to receive the international painting award at the prestigious Venice Biennale since its beginning in 1895.
Rauschenberg began to make what he called “combine paintings—a kind of collage of painted surface and actual objects—in the 1950s, incorporating found objects and personal belongings. A stuffed goat, a quilt, and Coke bottles were among the things that energized his art. The same year that Round Sum was painted, he became only the third American to receive the international painting award at the prestigious Venice Biennale since its beginning in 1895.
Not on view
In Collection(s)