Robert Rauschenberg: An Oral History

by Sara Sinclair (Editor), Peter Bearman (Editor), Mary Marshall Clark (Editor)

Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) was a breaker of boundaries and a consummate collaborator. He used silk-screen prints to reflect on American promise and failure, melded sculpture and painting in works called combines, and collaborated with engineers and scientists to challenge our thinking about art. Through collaborations with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and others, Rauschenberg bridged the music, dance, and visual-art worlds, inventing a new art for the last half of the twentieth century.

Robert Rauschenberg is a work of collaborative oral biography that tells the story of one of the twentieth century’s great artists through a series of interviews with key figures in his life―family, friends, former lovers, professional associates, studio assistants, and collaborators. The oral historian Sara Sinclair artfully puts the narrators’ reminiscences in conversation, with a focus on the relationship between Rauschenberg’s intense social life and his art. The book opens with a prologue by Rauschenberg’s sister and then shifts to New York City’s 1950s and ’60s art scene, populated by the luminaries of abstract expressionism. It follows Rauschenberg’s eventual move to Florida’s Captiva Island and his trips across the globe, illuminating his inner life and its effect on his and others’ art.

The narrators share their views on Rauschenberg’s work, explore the curatorial thinking behind exhibitions of his art, and reflect on the impact of the influx of money into the contemporary art market. Included are artists famous in their own right, such as Laurie Anderson and Brice Marden, as well as art-world insiders and lesser-known figures who were part of Rauschenberg’s inner circle. Beyond considering Rauschenberg as an artist, this book reveals him as a man embedded in a series of art worlds over the course of a long and rich life, demonstrating the complex interaction of business and personal, public and private in the creation of great art.

Genres: Art

328 pages, Paperback

Published March 30, 2021

About the author

Sara Sinclair is an oral historian of Cree-Ojibwa, German-Jewish and British descent. A graduate of Columbia University’s Oral History Master of Arts program, Sara was the project manager and lead interviewer for Columbia Centre for Oral History Research’s Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project. With Peter Bearman and Mary Marshall Clark, Sinclair edited a book from these narratives, published by Columbia University Press in 2019.

Prior to attending OHMA, Sara lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she conducted an oral history project for the International Labour Organization’s Regional Office for Africa. Sara’s work as an oral history consultant includes work for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the Exit Art Closure Study, a research project on the closure of New York gallery/artist’s space Exit Art (1982-2012).

For Sara’s thesis at Columbia she conducted a series of interviews exploring the narratives of university-educated, reservation-raised Native North Americans on returning to their Nations after school. Sara expanded this project, How We Go Home, through Voice of Witness’ Story Lab and is currently editing a forthcoming book with the organization.

Reviews

[Barry Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oral history of Robert Rauschenberg, the pioneering American artist who spearheaded the New York art scene in the wake of the abstract expressionists. His use of similar-toned paint, texture, odd materials like dirt, cardboard, multi-media, collage, and constructions paved the way for conceptual art, minimalist art and was an inspiration for generations after him. The sheer volume of his output is staggering. Other artists, family, friends, assistants, and gallery dealers all contribute to paint a portrait of a man who had an endless curiosity about other people, loved collaborating with others in various mediums, including music, dance and performance and lived to make art. A one-of-a-kind genius whose influence on art was profound. - BH.

[Julien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should start by saying I love the work of Robert Rauschenberg. I remember learning about his assemblages in an art history class in college and have enjoyed his pieces every since. That being said, I had never learned anything in depth about him as an artist, much less a person. This book definitely changed that. It is a very well-written, interesting exploration of not only a particular artist from a historical standpoint, but also from a personal standpoint. This is one of the strong suits or oral histories, in my opinion. They can provide rich detail and real context to the general outline of a person's life. It almost felt like I knew Rauschenberg as an acquaintance by the end of the book, and I felt that I grasped something more about his art from that. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the time period, the creative process, and especially someone interested in the man behind the goats and torn bedsheets. Remarkable.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It’s one thing to know and like (or not) an artist’s work and quite another to really get to know them as a person. Good biographies can do this, of course, but an oral history adds a depth that can’t be got elsewhere. This one explores Rauschenberg through a series of interviews with key figures in his life, from friends to family, lovers to collaborators, colleagues to fellow artists. A range of voices and points of view that I found fascinating. It’s an excellent account of the man and also of the people surrounding him and the art world he was a part of. Thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating.

[Mejix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some testimonies are incredibly touching, rich in detail, very moving. Then there are complete sections that are just not that interesting. The book also feels a bit sanitized. You do get a sketch of a personality though. More than a 3 but less than a 4 star book.