Round Sum

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Round Sum

Artist Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008)

Date1964

DimensionsPainting: 69 1/4 × 49 in. (175.9 × 124.5 cm)
Frame: 70 × 49 3/4 × 1 3/4 in. (177.8 × 126.4 × 4.4 cm)

MediumOil and silkscreen ink on canvas.

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of the Woodward Foundation

Object number

1976.33

Not on View

Label TextIn 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.Published References"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2 & 3, 1976, p. 78, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 93, pl. 261.

Tomkins, Calvin, Off the Wall: Robert Rauschenberg and the Art World of Our Time, Garden City, Doubleday, 1980, p. 305.

Forge, Andrew, Robert Rauschenberg, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1989, p. 108.

Feinstein, Roni, Robert Rauschenberg: the Silkscreen Paintings 1962-64, New York, 1990, no. 77, p. 167, repr.

Exhibition HistorySouth Bend, IN, The Art Center, Twentieth Century American Masters, 1978, p. 76, repr. p. 77.