Robert Rauschenberg
White Painting [three panel], 1951

Each of the five works in Robert Rauschenberg’s White Paintings (1951) consists of a different number of modular panels—there are one-, two-, three-, four-, and seven-panel iterations—that have been painted completely white. In each case, Rauschenberg’s primary aim was to create a painting that looked untouched by human hands, as though it had simply arrived in the world fully formed and absolutely pure. Considered shocking and even characterized as a cheap swindle when they were first exhibited publicly in 1953, the White Paintings have gradually secured a place in art history as important precursors of Minimalism and Conceptualism. Among the most radical aspects of the series is that these works were conceived as remakeable: Rauschenberg viewed them primarily as a concept and allowed for the physical artworks to be repainted and even refabricated from scratch without his direct involvement.

Many of Rauschenberg’s friends and studio assistants, including Cy Twombly (1928–2011), Brice Marden (b. 1938), David Prentice (b. 1943), Hisachika Takahashi (b. 1940), and Darryl Pottorf (b. 1952), either repainted or fully refabricated various White Paintings at different points in the series’ history. Although such efforts were often undertaken to maintain the pristine surfaces considered essential to these works, refabrication was sometimes necessary because Rauschenberg had reused the original canvases as supports for new paintings and Combines. White Painting [three panel] is believed to have been executed by Marden in 1968 while he was working as Rauschenberg’s studio assistant. It was subsequently repainted at least once, by Pottorf in 1998, while it was traveling in the Rauschenberg retrospective organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

In 1961, composer John Cage (1912–1992) famously referred to the White Paintings as airports for lights, shadows, and particles, establishing an enduring understanding of the series as receptive surfaces that respond to the world around them. Building on this reading, Rauschenberg once referred to the works as clocks, saying that if one were sensitive enough to the subtle changes on their surfaces one could tell what time it was and what the weather was like outside. Ultimately, the power of the White Paintings lies in the shifts in attention they require from the viewer, asking us to slow down, watch closely over time, and inspect their mute painted surfaces for subtle shifts in color, light, and texture.

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Overview

Each of the five works in Robert Rauschenberg’s White Paintings (1951) consists of a different number of modular panels—there are one-, two-, three-, four-, and seven-panel iterations—that have been painted completely white. In each case, Rauschenberg’s primary aim was to create a painting that looked untouched by human hands, as though it had simply arrived in the world fully formed and absolutely pure. Considered shocking and even characterized as a cheap swindle when they were first exhibited publicly in 1953, the White Paintings have gradually secured a place in art history as important precursors of Minimalism and Conceptualism. Among the most radical aspects of the series is that these works were conceived as remakeable: Rauschenberg viewed them primarily as a concept and allowed for the physical artworks to be repainted and even refabricated from scratch without his direct involvement.

Many of Rauschenberg’s friends and studio assistants, including Cy Twombly (1928–2011), Brice Marden (b. 1938), David Prentice (b. 1943), Hisachika Takahashi (b. 1940), and Darryl Pottorf (b. 1952), either repainted or fully refabricated various White Paintings at different points in the series’ history. Although such efforts were often undertaken to maintain the pristine surfaces considered essential to these works, refabrication was sometimes necessary because Rauschenberg had reused the original canvases as supports for new paintings and Combines. White Painting [three panel] is believed to have been executed by Marden in 1968 while he was working as Rauschenberg’s studio assistant. It was subsequently repainted at least once, by Pottorf in 1998, while it was traveling in the Rauschenberg retrospective organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

In 1961, composer John Cage (1912–1992) famously referred to the White Paintings as airports for lights, shadows, and particles, establishing an enduring understanding of the series as receptive surfaces that respond to the world around them. Building on this reading, Rauschenberg once referred to the works as clocks, saying that if one were sensitive enough to the subtle changes on their surfaces one could tell what time it was and what the weather was like outside. Ultimately, the power of the White Paintings lies in the shifts in attention they require from the viewer, asking us to slow down, watch closely over time, and inspect their mute painted surfaces for subtle shifts in color, light, and texture.

Ownership, Exhibition, and Publication Histories

Marks and Inscriptions

Audio Stories

Why paint in all white?

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transcripts

NARRATOR:

If you remove all the images, all the color, and all the traces of the person who made it, can a painting still be a work of art?  

 

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG:  

I did them to see how, how far, you know, you could push an object, and yet it’d still mean something.  

 

NARRATOR: 

Where some people saw emptiness, composer John Cage found inspiration. His so-called “silent composition”, 4’33”, was a direct response. John Cage— 

 

JOHN CAGE:  

I said that there should be a piece that had no sounds in it.  But I hadn’t yet written it. And the thing that gave me the courage to do it, finally, was seeing the white, empty paintings of Bob Rauschenberg, I’ve said before that they were airports for shadows and for dust. But you could say also that they were mirrors of the air.  

 

INDIRA ALLEGRA:  

I think it’s about calling us to really practice our own powers of perception.  

 

NARRATOR: Artist and writer Indira Allegra— 

 

ALLEGRA:

By scaling all the way back we get to have this baseline for practicing our skill of seeing. In a world that is more concerned with scrolling and scanning? The ability to sit with anything for any period of time actually becomes a valuable skill. It becomes an offering in that moment. How generous is that? 

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Artwork Info

Artwork title
White Painting [three panel]
Date created
1951
Classification
painting
Medium
latex paint on canvas
Dimensions
72 × 108 in. (182.9 × 274.3 cm)
Date acquired
1998
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Purchase through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis
Copyright
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/98.308.A-C
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

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