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Robert Rauschenberg
Collection, 1954/1955

A “Combine” is neither a sculpture nor a painting but rather a hybrid of the two. Robert Rauschenberg developed the term to describe a series of works he began in 1954 that eluded traditional art media categories. Collection (1954/1955) is the artist’s first “Combine painting,” an early type of Combine that hangs on the wall like a traditional painting but reaches into three dimensions with various elements attached to the work’s surface—such as the silk veil over the mirror attached just off-center and the found wood scraps along the top edge. This work also marks a new approach to color. In a decisive move away from the experimental monochromatic series of white, black, and red paintings he created between 1951 and 1953, Rauschenberg began Collection by covering three panels with red, yellow, and blue fabric and layering them with innumerable collaged, drawn, painted, and sculpted elements. The same year that Rauschenberg began Collection he started to experiment with extending the three-dimensionality of the Combines, incorporating both wall and floor components and even creating fully freestanding works, such as Untitled, in the Panza Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Collection is distinctive for the range and variety of materials it incorporates. In contrast to the approach seen in his Red Paintings (1953–54) and his Black paintings (1951–53), where the collage papers and fabrics typically play second fiddle to the painted passages, here Rauschenberg gives everyday objects the same prominence as conventional art materials. Comic strips, squirts of oil paint, art magazine illustrations, and a host of textiles jostle for attention, and gestural paint strokes drawn directly from the vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism carry the same compositional weight as newspaper clippings of car thefts and department store advertisements. Rauschenberg creates a sense of equality across this diverse visual field in part through the work’s structure. The three vertical panels, in addition to referencing the traditional triptych format, appear to be horizontally subdivided into three regions: a relatively quiet area along the top, bordered by a long squeeze of red paint that crosses the surface from left to right; a densely layered strip across the center, where the majority of the collaged elements are concentrated; and a band of brightly colored stripes that fills the bottom. The resulting three-by-three grid both consolidates and unifies the work’s otherwise chaotic surface.

During preparations for Rauschenberg’s 1976 retrospective at the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in Washington, D.C., organizing curator Walter Hopps approached the artist about naming several Combines that until that point had remained untitled. Rauschenberg’s choice of Collection as the title of this work can be read in a number of ways. Hopps suggested that the artist was paying homage to the National Collection of Fine Arts, the first venue on the retrospective tour. Interpreted more literally, the title could reference the collection of wayward scraps scattered across the composition, from the tiny fabric reproductions of masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) to the print of Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou’s bas-relief Le Passage du Rhin (ca. 1733) and the Re Umberto Brand food packaging in the upper left corner. Through such acts of gathering and combining, Collection bridges cultural references high and low. It also links Rauschenberg’s early artistic explorations with a new phase of experimentation. The Combines brought Rauschenberg international success, and their innovative approach to blending materials and categories remains one of the most significant developments in the history of twentieth-century art.

Overview

A “Combine” is neither a sculpture nor a painting but rather a hybrid of the two. Robert Rauschenberg developed the term to describe a series of works he began in 1954 that eluded traditional art media categories. Collection (1954/1955) is the artist’s first “Combine painting,” an early type of Combine that hangs on the wall like a traditional painting but reaches into three dimensions with various elements attached to the work’s surface—such as the silk veil over the mirror attached just off-center and the found wood scraps along the top edge. This work also marks a new approach to color. In a decisive move away from the experimental monochromatic series of white, black, and red paintings he created between 1951 and 1953, Rauschenberg began Collection by covering three panels with red, yellow, and blue fabric and layering them with innumerable collaged, drawn, painted, and sculpted elements. The same year that Rauschenberg began Collection he started to experiment with extending the three-dimensionality of the Combines, incorporating both wall and floor components and even creating fully freestanding works, such as Untitled, in the Panza Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Collection is distinctive for the range and variety of materials it incorporates. In contrast to the approach seen in his Red Paintings (1953–54) and his Black paintings (1951–53), where the collage papers and fabrics typically play second fiddle to the painted passages, here Rauschenberg gives everyday objects the same prominence as conventional art materials. Comic strips, squirts of oil paint, art magazine illustrations, and a host of textiles jostle for attention, and gestural paint strokes drawn directly from the vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism carry the same compositional weight as newspaper clippings of car thefts and department store advertisements. Rauschenberg creates a sense of equality across this diverse visual field in part through the work’s structure. The three vertical panels, in addition to referencing the traditional triptych format, appear to be horizontally subdivided into three regions: a relatively quiet area along the top, bordered by a long squeeze of red paint that crosses the surface from left to right; a densely layered strip across the center, where the majority of the collaged elements are concentrated; and a band of brightly colored stripes that fills the bottom. The resulting three-by-three grid both consolidates and unifies the work’s otherwise chaotic surface.

During preparations for Rauschenberg’s 1976 retrospective at the National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in Washington, D.C., organizing curator Walter Hopps approached the artist about naming several Combines that until that point had remained untitled. Rauschenberg’s choice of Collection as the title of this work can be read in a number of ways. Hopps suggested that the artist was paying homage to the National Collection of Fine Arts, the first venue on the retrospective tour. Interpreted more literally, the title could reference the collection of wayward scraps scattered across the composition, from the tiny fabric reproductions of masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) to the print of Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou’s bas-relief Le Passage du Rhin (ca. 1733) and the Re Umberto Brand food packaging in the upper left corner. Through such acts of gathering and combining, Collection bridges cultural references high and low. It also links Rauschenberg’s early artistic explorations with a new phase of experimentation. The Combines brought Rauschenberg international success, and their innovative approach to blending materials and categories remains one of the most significant developments in the history of twentieth-century art.

Ownership, Exhibition, and Publication Histories

Marks and Inscriptions

Recto: None

Verso: On upper right corner of wood element attached to top of strainer, inscription in white chalk: “6 ½ x 8′ 1″ $900”; on upper secondary support spline, near left edge, inscription in white chalk: “CAT No 286 R 19”; on upper secondary support spline, below chalk inscription, French customs stamp in dark blue ink: “Douane Paris Chapelle”

Audio Stories

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transcripts

RAUSCHENBERG:

I like using found objects, something that doesn’t just start from the artist’s hands. With my economy at that point, I’d think of anything as being material.

 

NARRATOR:

That’s artist Robert Rauschenberg, thinking back to 1954, the year he started to work on Collection. He called artworks like this “combines” – since they combine painting, collage and sculpture. Look at the things he gathered here. Images of famous artworks. Scraps of newsprint. A little round mirror.

 

SFX: Slow rise on New York City street sounds

 

Other random stuff he bought and found in the streets of New York. If you stand back, you can see this object is made of three parts…

 

RAUSCHENBERG: (audible under NARRATOR)

This is an all … red panel. This is a yellow panel. And that’s a blue panel.

 

NARRATOR:

Maybe not obvious, beneath all those colors, and layers of stuff.

 

DOROTHEA ROCKBURNE:

It was amazing and new and vibrant and incredibly funny and intelligent and sensuous.

 

NARRATOR:

That’s Rauschenberg’s friend, artist Dorothea Rockburne. She first saw Collection in 1954.

 

ROCKBURNE:

I think I was eighteen or something when I came to New York. You know at any given point in art… there are some people out there making noise. I mean it was really a kick in the ass, you know!

 

SFX: New York City fades out

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Audio Description

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transcripts

NARRATOR:

 Robert Rauschenberg made this abstract work, which he titled Collection, between 1954 and 1955. It’s 6 ½ feet tall and 8 feet long, and 3 ½ inches deep. As the title suggests, it’s a collection of oil paint, paper, wood, and metal on canvas.  

This artwork is neither painting nor sculpture, but what the artist dubbed a “combine” – a combination somewhere in between. It’s about the size of a King-sized mattress turned on its side. It is made from three wooden panels sitting flush against each other, with no attempt to hide their vertical seams. Throughout the artwork, colors run into each other, splatter and drip. Various shades of blue, pink, yellow, and orange are visible, but the dominant color is red. There are splatters all over the surface of this work, almost as if Rauschenberg tipped and knocked over cups filled with paint.  

Resting on top of the frame are several appendages made from found and salvaged objects. On the upper left, there is a wooden block with a shiny scrap of tin attached to it. The tin, which appears to be cut from the packaging of a product, is printed with the image of a moustached man in uniform. On top of the center panel, an assortment of curly wooden scraps is nailed onto a slab of wood. The curls look like they could be decorative remnants from cabinets or furniture. 

The overall composition of the painting can be divided into three general zones, from top to bottom. The top third features variously sized rectangular pieces of paper and fabric pasted onto the wood. The papers are aged and browning. Most are blank, but a few have been scribbled on in pencil, or marked with paint.  

The center zone is the most dense area. Torn fragments of paper, swatches of fabric, newspaper clippings, and scraps of comics are attached throughout. A tiny circular mirror hangs in the center panel, covered by a veil of gauzy orange-brown fabric. Charcoal scribbles, oozing streaks of color, dribbles, and thick smears of paint cover this area. When there are brushstrokes, they go in all directions and appear in many different colors. There is a distinct thick red line of paint running horizontally from the left edge of the painting all the way across this area. The line is raised off the surface, suggesting that the artist squeezed the paint right from the tube. 

The bottom third of the artwork is the most orderly. Nine distinct vertical bands of color in pink, blue, red, beige, yellow and brown run from left to right, like thick vertical panels. Drips of paint have splashed down on top of them from above.  

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Artwork Info

Artwork title
Collection
Date created
1954/1955
Classification
painting
Medium
fabric, metal, oil, paper and wood on canvas
Dimensions
80 in. × 96 in. × 3 1/2 in. (203.2 cm × 243.84 cm × 8.89 cm)
Date acquired
1972
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Gift of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson
Copyright
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/72.26
Artwork status
On view on floor 2 as part of Open Ended: SFMOMA's Collection, 1900 to Now

Views of the Artwork (16)

Primary View

View artwork image

Artwork Detail

Photograph of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection prior to 2012 conservation treatment

Artwork Detail

View of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection highlighting alterations made after it was first exhibited

Artwork Detail

Views of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection documenting changes in appearance from 1969 to 2013

Artwork Detail

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection showing the mirror without the fabric veil

Artwork Detail

Details of fabric in Robert Rauschenberg's Collection with a shirt of similar material

Artwork Detail

Details of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing fading of fabric

Artwork Verso

View of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing traces of glue or sizing

Artwork Verso Detail

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing the abutment of two panels

Artwork Verso Detail

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing curved wooden element

Artwork Verso Detail

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing red wooden element

Artwork Verso Detail

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing 1964 catalogue number

Artwork Verso Detail

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (verso) showing notation of price

Archival Image

Installation view of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection, Charles Egan Gallery, New York, 1954–1955

Archival Image

Photograph of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection (second state) published in 1961

Installation View

Installation view of Robert Rauschenberg's Collection, SFMOMA, 1978

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