Rauschenberg

1. Ellie Fisher
Discuss the relationship between photography and printmaking with particular reference to the work of
Robert Rauschenberg
Although printmaking and photography both originated from discrete technologies for example armour
engraving for etching and the camera Obscura for photography. They both could be seen to promote
the same objective, the desire to replicate a vision of reality in multiples for commercial, political or
journalistic ends. Whilst the objective of both disciplines is to leave a trace albeit figure landscape or
still life, the two had been used differently in the art world until the point when they were brought
together.
At this point, the processes proved mutually advantageous. Printmaking originally aided the
production of photographic illustrations in books by providing a stronger, non light sensitive ink whilst
photography provided a whole spectrum of new techniques for the printmaker to use in their artwork.
The two then could exist harmoniously together.
Despite this, visually the two are quite separate. Photography still holds on to its idea to be a copy of
reality whilst printmaking allows more of artists hand to be visible in a similar way to a painter. The
choice of print technique can reflect the artist’s world view. For instance, Norman Ackroyd uses
aquatint etching to create atmosphere whilst David Hockney’s mark making adds some humour to his
work. It can be said that the mark making produced in printmaking echoes the artist more than the
technique of photography does. On the other hand, artist photographers nowadays have learnt to use
different techniques such as mise-en-scѐne, point of view, framing, lighting, creative developing and
printing to make their work unique.
Both printmaking and photography had the ultimate aim of making perfect editions, with the idea of
being mass produced and therefore to be commercial. This commercial multiple was contradictory to
other fine arts like painting or sculpture being a work of originality and uniqueness. The popularity of
both processes during the 20th and 21st century has enabled art to be available to a wider audience
and thus less elite.
Artists like Hannah Hoch during the dada movement were the first to consciously use photography to
create photomontages in 1918 with the objective of subverting both the idea of the artist as the
creator of one original. Furthermore, to comment on the omnipresence of the photographic image in
popular culture whilst playing with ideas of celebrity, fame and propaganda. This technique was then
adopted by artists to follow such as Robert Rauschenberg.
Robert Rauschenberg is considered to be one of the foremost printmakers of the 1960’s1 and is still
recognised as being an artist who predominantly works with printmaking processes such as screen
print and lithography. Throughout his career he has been aware of the development of printmaking as
a craft or fine art, paying close attention to the introduction of photography. Despite his knowledge, he
has always gone against following the exact traditions of the process, instead by combining them with
his own unusual methodologies.
It would appear evident that his fascination not only towards the camera but towards the process of
multiplication and imprints started when he was very young. Whilst at Black Mountain College (a
school made up of like minded artists who wanted to blur the separation between art and craft),
Rauschenberg produced a series of blue prints (otherwise known as cyanotypes) that demonstrated
both qualities of photography and printmaking. Untitled for example, shows a mirrored figure
appearing like an X-ray scan. The technique is produced through exposing light sensitive paper to a
sun lamp and where the figure or object is positioned; the paper will remain white, leaving a soft
outline. This technique is somewhat similar to stencil based printmaking methods like screen-print
which he would later incorporate in his work.
1 Introduction, The Minneapolis Insitute of Art Exhbition catalogue (1970) Robert Rauschenberg Prints
1948 – 1970

2. Ellie Fisher
As an artist, Rauschenberg enjoyed working collaboratively, particularly when at college where it was
encouraged. One of his collaborations, Automobile Tire Print in 1951, he worked together with John
Cage to produce a print made by the action of a moving car. As Rauschenberg inked the pavement,
Cage drove the car over twenty sheets of type write paper. This left a large brush stroke like mark
across the paper. Taking into account, printmaking had always been considered a method of mass
production and never seen as a fine art like painting or sculpture, Rauschenberg has completely
opened up new boundaries for other artists with how we define a print. This print not only made
viewers question the role of the press but also the role of the artist. He describes John Cage as ‘the
printer and the press’2 however later states that he considers it his own print. I think Rauschenberg’s
involvement with chance and accidents initiated at this stage of his career. By using an object not
suited for the process as well as someone else’s intervention, the outcome was bound to be
unexpected. One aspect of printmaking that makes it so unique is its chance driven outcomes.
In Automobile Tire Print, there was evidence of the artist’s fascination with using everyday materials
like the car tyre and house hold paint. This is something he took forward into his next work, making
large paintings which bought together sculpture, photography, painting and print. He called these
works ‘Combines’ because like no other artist had done before, he combined a multitude of different
medium. He incorporated photography via the use of found newspapers and comics, selecting
particular images as a reflection on popular culture and everyday life. Photography enabled
Rauschenberg and other artists at the time, to recycle and rearrange mass media images to create
new messages in his work. For example in Monogram, he uses images of figures, footprints and
people. All of which are juxtaposed with the taxidermy goat which is positioned through a rubber tire in
the centre of the canvas. With knowledge of his background, I think it is easy for viewers to interpret
this piece as being a self reflection on homosexuality. The photographs could be used as symbols of
the discrimination formed by press as he circles one persons face amongst a group photo. Although
in some way personal, his work is often never autobiographical but instead targeting every day stories
that people can relate to.
2 Cumming, L Robert Rauschenberg review – the combine master, uncut
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/dec/04/robert-rauschenberg-review-the-combine-
master-uncut-thrilling-retrospective

3. Ellie Fisher
There are also signs of printed image in the work ‘Monogram’. Just below the goats head, we can see
text printed onto wood. This would most likely have been done by process of stencil printing with ink.
Although it is known that Rauschenberg would not have printed this himself, he would have allowed
chance of encountering found objects to influence his artistic output. He has specifically taken to the
tactile surface that a print can offer. Dissimilar to painting, this method of printing demonstrates flat,
bold and graphic nature of popular mass culture and production. He has also used a distressed
version of a print, almost reflecting on the age of modern culture. The fragmented text implies that we
are all totally influenced by snippets of words that we read in the media. These words can manipulate
the way we feel and cause prejudice against certain sects of society.
As photography and printmaking develop in the art world, Rauschenberg pursues his interest and
starts finding new ways of transferring one image to another. In 1958 he discovered that he could
leave the impression of a photograph on another piece of paper through the use of lighter fluid and a
ball point pen. No other artist had used this technique before and so again, it opened up a whole new
aspect of print and photography to his contemporaries. Printmaking no longer had to be done with a
press and photographs not only printed on paper. Rauschenberg also learnt that the solvent could
transfer the photograph onto fabric, which meant that he could use materials like chiffon and silk to
further address the messages he wanted to convey to the viewer. These messages when relating to
the work he was producing at the time such as the Hoarfrost series were ones of ethereality and
relation between art and life. The work features images of planes and hot air balloons suggesting the
feeling of being ‘lighter than air’ 3which is reflected in the use of light material and muted colour
scheme.
A key ambition of Rauschenberg was to blur the line between art and everyday life. He did this by
combining life size objects and images with painting. However it wasn’t until 1962 when he discovered
the silk screen printing method in his work that he started playing around with scale with his
photographic work. Unlike the previous transfer drawings which remained the size of the image, photo
silk screen meant that he could use an image found from a newspaper or comic strip and enlarge it to
whatever size he pleased. It also meant that he was able to follow his fascination with duplication and
re print the same image as many times as he wanted and in as many variations of colours.
3 National Gallery of Art, Robert Rauschenberg, Hoarfrost Editions, 1974
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/the-serial-impulse/robert-rauschenberg.html

4. Ellie Fisher
The photographic element to his silk screens started off being his own nondescript photographs of
himself however as he learnt more about the process with influence of artist, Andy Warhol, he began
working with recognisable photographs such as historical paintings and clips from the television. Pop
artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were also exploring photo silk screens in their work
at the time; however Rauschenberg was the only artist to introduce politics, sport and science. I also
consider him to have used the process in a completely different way to other contemporary artists, by
using multiple canvases and juxtaposing particular imagery in a way that each viewer would interpret
differently. It was evident through his multilayered work that there was no singular meaning for what
he had presented on the canvas. Because he always stressed the importance of everyday life in art
and vice versa, he wanted each individual’s personal experience to effect the interpretation of the
piece.
Relating back to the attitudes towards photography’s impact on printmaking around the time, it is
important to note that some artists disagreed with photographically enhanced art works because they
believe it ‘destroys or mutilates the efforts from the first’.4 This being said, Rauschenberg’s approach
to the interrelation between photography and printmaking was considered different. The artist did not
use the photograph as a way of making direct copy of reality, but instead for more complex reasons
such as to comment on political issues raised by popular culture.
In addition to this, people translate Rauschenberg’s use of photography as a new method of drawing.
By fragmenting, enlarging and combining he is able to create unusual, accidental mark making in his
work. He considers it ‘as realistic and poetic as a brush stroke’ thus challenging the idea of identical
multiple of traditional methods.
Photo lithography also featured significantly as his work progresses. Despite being reluctant to
spending the second half of 20th century ‘writing on rocks’ 5, he realised that lithography could open
up a whole new set of ideas and that it did. Once he became familiar of the medium, he started to
introduce photographic images again similar to his previous ‘found object’ work. In the work Shades
he created a book like object which layers sheets of printed Plexiglas. On each sheet, he had printed
photographs collected from newspapers and magazines and when each layer was moved, new
variations of image composition were created as you looked through. This is an example of how
printmaking has helped photography to broaden its possibilities. Rauschenberg has invented a new
way of presenting a photograph as a three dimensional mutable object.
4 Newton, C. Photography in Printmaking Pg 14
5 Introduction, Robert Rauschenberg Prints 1948/1970

5. Ellie Fisher
Not only did printmaking enable the photograph to be printed onto transparent materials such as silk
and Plexiglas, it also allowed Rauschenberg to amalgamate the flatness of an image to the solidness
of a metal. In 1979 he juxtaposed silk screen prints of photographs he had taken in Florida onto large
metal surfaces such as copper, aluminium and steel. This gave his photographs a whole new impact
for the viewer. The similarity in surface texture and causes the image to not appear clear until the
viewer is made to move around the piece. This echoes the artist’s initial ambition to bring the space of
the gallery into the artwork.
The last collection of work that I am going to talk about in this essay is his inkjet transfers including
Mirthday Man from 1997. I want to reflect on his ability to keep up with the fast pace of technology
whilst still playing around with traditional methods. As digital photography and printing has developed,
so has his work despite still challenging the norm. With the invention of the large format inkjet printer
and Adobe’s launch of Photoshop, Rauschenberg could recycle old photographs and symbols from
previous work and transfer them onto new grounds. An image he has used multiple times throughout
his work is the X-ray of his own body. As the X-ray has stayed the same, the photograph has changed
and been put into different situations. In Mirthday Man we see the figure surrounded by various
symbols including a bike tire, an umbrella, arrows and historical paintings. All of which have too
appeared once or twice in his work.
As always, he hasn’t given any clear indication what each symbol is connoting and instead he asks
the viewer to interpret it as they wish. Thus I feel it is important I offer my own analysis to the work.
Having seen Mirthday Man alongside other works at Rauschenberg’s retrospective exhibition at the
Tate Modern I have gained more understanding of how he uses scale and materials in his work. I
have also learnt about his use of photographs as symbols.
The centrality of the figure could suggest the work being a form of self portrait. His use of the corporal
body surrounded by symbols of mass culture I feel signifies how social media and other digital
technologies have become so advanced that they are beginning to race ahead of him. Despite being
able to correspond with the development of technology throughout his whole career, I translate this
piece as being a comment on his mortality against the permanence of mass media images. The X-ray
he has used, which has also featured in some of his earlier works, is of his younger body. This again
further reinforces the idea of tradition and the new digital age. Photographs are permanent objects.
The skeleton reminds me of a Vanitas paintings where the artists use the skull as a connotation of
death. With the title being a pun, I think it could almost be a sign of Rauschenberg laughing in the
face of death.
The mutually advantageous relationship between both photography and printmaking is reflected in the
connection they both have with Rauschenberg’s work. They both significantly impacted the
development of his practice by allowing him to challenge the traditions of art. In return, he was able to
aid their progression, by changing the preconceived attitudes that were held towards them as forms of
art. He helped to challenge the association printmaking had with mass production and craft and

6. Ellie Fisher
supported the idea that it should be considered a fine art alongside painting and sculpture.
Furthermore, with attitudes towards photography, he reinforced the point that photography does not
detract from any kind of skill in art and instead can be used skilfully to provide new meaning to work.
Rauschenberg has gone on to influence contemporary artists like Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter
who both use photography, collage and printmaking in their work. Similarly, he has been great
inspiration for my own practice. As a printmaker who is also very engaged by the use of a camera, I
have been able to relate to the parallel correlations the mediums share. Visiting the retrospective has
persuaded me to pursue Rauschenberg’s vision of erasing any boundaries between each art
discipline.
Bibliography
Books
Newton, C. and Staff, A.M. (1979) Photography in printmaking [Exhibition, Victoria and Albert
Museum]. London: The Compton Press & Pitman Publishing.
The Minneapolis Insitute of Art Exhbition catalogue (1970) Robert Rauschenberg Prints 1948 – 1970
Suzuki, S. (2011) What is a print? Selections from the museum of modern art. New York: Museum of
Modern Art.
Exhibition visits
Robert Rauschenberg Retrospective exhibition, Tate Modern, London (2017)
Articles and Journals
Jeremias, R. (2010) ‘The craftsman - by Richard Sennett’, WorkingUSA, 13(1), pp. 175–178. doi:
10.1111/j.1743-4580.2010.00278.x.
Websites
Rauschenberg, R. (2017) Robert Rauschenberg biography, art, and analysis of works. Available at:
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-rauschenberg-robert.htm
Foundation, R.R. (1950) Art & archives. Available at: http://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art
Videos
Sooke, A. (2016) Robert Rauschenberg : Pop Art Pioneer Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzECBdy_xAE BBC TWO (Youtube)
Nigel Slater’s Icing (2016) Gaga for dada: The original art rebels BBC documentary 2016. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jULnntRascw
Manufacturing Intellect (2016) Robert Rauschenberg interview on Charlie Rose (1998). Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDUbPqBRPvY