The Confidence Man Of American Art
Jed Perl writes: ‘Robert Rauschenberg was a showman, a trickster, a shaman, and a charmer. In the retrospective that recently closed at Tate Modern in London and will be arriving at the Museum of Modern Art in New York this May, museumgoers are confronted with many different things: the imprint of an automobile tire; a couple of rocks tied with pieces of rope or string; paintings that are all white, all black, or all red; a sheet and pillow spattered with paint; a drawing by de Kooning that Rauschenberg erased; deconstructed corrugated cardboard boxes; bright silken banners; a blinking light; mixed-media works mounted on wheels so as to be easily moved; and paintings packed with photographs. Rauschenberg’s career is the fool’s errand of American art.’ Pictured: the 1964 silkscreen-and-oil “Persimmon.”
