Robert RauschenbergUntitled (Early Egyptian), 1973Cardboard, sand, acrylic, bicycle, fabric, twine, and metal bucketon wood stand155 1/2 x 203 x 47 inches (395 x 515.6 x 119.4 cm)© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Courtesy the foundation and Gladstone GalleryPhotography by Ron Amstutz

Written by Megan May Walsh

Edited by Jana Massoud

Artist Robert Rauschenberg wanders into the gap between art and life that painting creates with his exhibition at the Gladstone Gallery in collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation titled Venetians and Early Egyptians, 1972-1974. The intriguing works of this collection dance around the boundaries of sculpture and painting, waste and conservation, and mundane objects and incredible artwork. Viewers of this exhibition will be able to witness these works from their debut at Leo Castelli gallery in 1972 and 1973.

Installation view, Robert Rauschenberg:Venetians and Early Egyptians, 1972-1974, Gladstone Gallery, New York,2022.© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation,Courtesy the foundation and Gladstone Gallery

Rauschenberg shamelessly and masterfully pushes against the boundaries of working in a single medium. Inspired by the juxtaposition of everyday occurrences and monuments, Rauschenburg played with the subversive power of assemblage to cast a light on the strangeness of life that lurks around us. In the spring of 1972, Rauschenberg visited Italy where he encountered the full breadth of this phenomenon. Struck by the massive contrast of Italy's grandesque aurora and architecture with its overshadowed presence of decay and fragility, Rauschenberg steps into the artistic dimension to work out these peculiarities. Assembling household and natural found objects, from leather and rubber to wood utility poles and tire treads, Rauschenberg brings together the unlikely in strange and poetic ways.

Venetians and Early Egyptians, radically different from his earlier work, is built with cardboard formations, neutral in color but opulent in its artistic peculiarity. Conjuring cardboard's historical, cultural, and economic properties, Rauschenberg plays with the analogy of cardboard, glue, and sand as stone and sediment - building blocks of how we encounter the world and the things around us. Working with affordable and accessible material to build grandesque models of Egyptian temples, Rauschenberg transforms the waste, consumerism, and labor associated with cardboard material into precious elaborate artifacts.

Robert RauschenbergUntitled (Early Egyptian), 1974Cardboard, sand, and acrylic paint55 1/4 x 105 3/4 x 39 1/4 inches (140.3 x 268.6 x 99.7 cm)© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Courtesy the foundation and Gladstone GalleryPhotography by Ron Amstutz

Reorienting what we conceptualize as waste or lacking potential for beauty is exactly what Rauschenberg captures with his collection Venetian and Early Egyptians. This reframing of thought also allows us to challenge what is normatively understood as beautiful in the constructions of worlds around us. Perhaps we shouldn't immediately classify Italy as beautiful for its grandeur and elegance. Instead, we should look in the shadows of the city where people are struggling economically, socially, and politically. Perhaps we can find beauty in those corners with the potential to build better worlds that are not simply gilded or dipped in glitter. This is the wondrous thought experiment that Rauschenberg's exhibition presents to viewers that encounter his work. If something grand can be made of cardboard, then what is normatively understood as grand can be deconstructed to reveal a radically new framework of understanding and viewing the world. Building beauty from insignificance is the task that Robert Rauschenberg accomplishes with his strange assemblages and peculiar art pieces - it is a reimagining of possibility.

Venetians and Early Egyptians, 1972-1974 exhibition at Gladstone Gallery is presented in collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and will be on view from May 4th to June 18th, 2022. For more information on the exhibition, please visit the gallery's website: https://www.gladstonegallery.com/exhibition/9542/venetians-and-early-egyptians-1972-1974/installation-views