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Detail of Robert Rauschenberg’s Untitled (1973) showing a collaged bag and string-tie closure

Related to Untitled, 1973

Detail of Robert Rauschenberg’s Untitled (1973) showing a collaged bag and string-tie closure

Related to Untitled, 1973

Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled, 1973 (detail)

Research Material
Artwork Detail

Untitled (1973) is one of many works by Rauschenberg to include quotidian materials such as envelopes and other paper products. This detail shows a small string closure—detached from an office envelope to be used as part of this composition—pressed onto a flattened paper bag. Rauschenberg’s process included folding the partially finished work in half and running it through a press. This resulted in mirror-image imprints of the collaged elements that were revealed when the work was unfolded. Here, the embossed silhouette just to the left of the tie closure records the impression of a small envelope that is affixed to the opposite edge of the artwork.

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