![]() ![]() Which is why they went unidentified for so long. While the Wisconsin photos have long been known-some were reproduced in the catalogue for an exhibition of Rauschenberg’s early works curated by Walter Hopps for the Menil Collection in Houston in the early 1990s-the trove in Chicago got buried, filed under the generic heading “Nudes” (not surprisingly, since two nude models appear in a good number of the photographs). But here’s where things get complicated: At some point, Kirkland’s archives were split in two, with a portion sent to the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison and the remainder consigned to the University of Illinois at Chicago library. Until now it has sat undiscovered, along with several dozen other negatives, in an archive in Chicago.Īs must have been his habit as a professional photographer, Kirkland kept hold of the negatives from that day. ![]() Although the picture was taken more than six decades ago and appears to be an iconic image of the artist, this is in fact the first time it has ever been published. The photograph captures myriad details that speak to the couple’s creative process and ambitions in their early years living in New York and foreshadows artistic breakthroughs yet to come. IT IS AN UNFORGETTABLE PORTRAIT of the artist as a young man: A tousle-haired Robert Rauschenberg, in rolled-up shirtsleeves and paint-spattered jeans, stands barefoot amid a body of work, selections from a group of blueprints-primitive photograms-that he and Susan Weil, then his wife, produced collaboratively from about 1949 to 1951. © Susan Weil and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. ![]() © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo: Wallace Kirkland/Wallace Kirkland papers,, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago. Robert Rauschenberg holding a blueprint by Susan Weil and himself in their West Ninety-Fifth Street apartment, New York, 1951. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |