Exhibition Review: Robert Rauschenberg "Night Shades and Phantoms"
Robert Rauschenberg, Botanical Vaudeville (Phantom), 1991. Silkscreen ink on anodised mirrored aluminium. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by Adagp, Paris, 2020. Photo: Glenn Steigemann
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg
Written by Andy Dion
Influential post-war artist Robert Rauschenberg is commonly lauded for his exploration of omission. He contemplated what made an art piece with the barest components possible, as seen in many of his collages, paintings, and sculptures. In a changing world, Rauschenberg redefined what it meant to be an artist, famously stating, “An artist is a diplomat, a prophet, a historian, a poet, and a calendar of nourishment of morality and energy.” His collections, Night Shades and Phantoms, currently on view at the London Ely House and presented by Thaddeus Ropac, continues to dazzle and challenge viewers to this day.
The two collections came from a period of experimentation with metal painting. Photographic images of streets, people, and landscapes are silk screened with streaks and inky clouds of paint. There is a theme of industry and bustle with references to the road, traffic signs, and cars. Rauschenberg conjures a grayscale color palette, further emphasizing the night shade namesake. Photographic images and dark acrylic paints blend together in eerily uniform collages of chiaroscuro. Cool as night, the metal used adds an element of coolness to the images, as if they are negatives on film, grown to huge proportions, insisting on being seen.
Robert Rauschenberg, Boston, Massachusetts, 1980. Gelatin silver print. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by Adagp, Paris, 2020. Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg
Despite Rauschenberg’s penchant for minimalism in practice, Night Shades and Phantoms add an invisible element to the viewing experience because of their medium: reflection. When a viewer approaches one of these pieces, their murky reflection appears on the mirrored aluminum, causing a distortion. In order to closely see the image in detail, the viewer must lean closer, further beclouding the art to the point that they become a part of it as well. By exercising command over the artworks components, Rauschenberg uses onlookers and paint to blot out their photographed elements and the experience becomes multidimensional, a purely individual experience.
Robert Rauschenberg, Portal (Night Shade), 1991. Tarnish and silkscreen ink on brushed aluminium.
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by Adagp, Paris, 2020. Photo: Glenn Steigemann
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg
Night Shades and Phantoms include elements of Rauschenberg’s collages, only now they are embossed and obscured on metal. “Holiday Ruse (Night Shades) 1991” mimics a street block with storefronts, awnings, and people captured in surprising fidelity peering through implied windows, all covered in a muddy black swath. This collection features unsettling wide landscapes that enthrall and lure the viewer. People lurking just beyond the dark shade of paint peer right back at you, while some, looking away render the viewer a voyeur of sorts. “Neapolitan Excavation (Night Shades) 1991” echoes Rauschenberg’s collages by using blank space and verticality to show a scene of paleontology, uncovering ruins and whatever lies beyond.
Robert Rauschenberg, Cuba, 1987. Gelatin silver print. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by Adagp, Paris, 2020. Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London • Paris • Salzburg
Thirty years later, Night Shades and Phantoms continues to enthrall with its depth and intuition, luring us in with forward thinking techniques even to today’s standards. Rauschenberg’s cold, reflective commentary on the industrial and disaffected rings true and will for generations, like finding a beautiful foggy mirror in your basement, an artifact reflecting shadows of truth ad infinitum.
