Robert Rauschenberg

Art Attacks on BBC Radio 4

New BBC 4 radio programme  called ‘art attacks’  covering the destructive nature of art – it was pretty interesting and informative all round, but particularly great for Robert Rauschenberg’s account of meeting Willem De Kooning.

Series investigating the history of attacks on art works, from the earliest times to the present day.

When does destruction become an act of creation? Lawrence Pollard explores what lies behind some of the more bizarre assaults on contemporary art, including an exploding shed, an artist who destroyed every one of his possessions and art that has been both urinated on and whacked with a hammer.

Sourse BBC Website:

Listen to the Programme now on the BBC Iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nk2xr

Only available until Monday 9th Nov

Art e-Facts 38

 

Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925, Robert Rauschenberg imagined himself first as a minister and later as a pharmacist. It wasn’t until 1947, while in the U.S. Marines that he discovered his aptitude for drawing and his interest in the artistic representation of everyday objects and people. After leaving the Marines he studied art in Paris on the G.I. Bill, but quickly became disenchanted with the European art scene. After less than a year he moved to North Carolina, where the country’s most visionary artists and thinkers, such as Joseph Albers and Buckminster Fuller, were teaching at Black Mountain College. There, with artists such as dancer Merce Cunningham and musician John Cage, Rauschenberg began what was to be an artistic revolution. Soon, North Carolina country life began to seem small and he left for New York to make it as a painter. There, amidst the chaos and excitement of city life Rauschenberg realized the full extent of what he could bring to painting.