Innovative American Artist Dies

Posted May 13, 2008, 11:55 am in Arts
Credit Growing Bolder

American artist Robert Rauschenberg has died, at the age of 82. His work helped shape 20th century art, while at the same time invoking controversy. He worked as a painter, a photographer, a printmaker, a choreographer and even a composer through the years, giving a much broader definition to the word artist.

He made bold strides in his field, refusing to work with just one medium -- and the result was extraordinary. Rauschenberg may be best-known for his piece called "Combines," done in the 1950s. The result was, as the title alluded to, a combination of paint and scuplture, using everything from trash to treasure! Rauschenberg was quoted as saying he "wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the surprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises. And if it wasn't a surprise at first, by the time I got through with it, it was. So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing."

Here are some interviews done with Rauschenberg before his death:









For more information about his work, and a slideshow of Rauschenberg's most famous images, check out these articles:

New York Times

PBS, American Masters

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