Rauschenberg and the Twentieth Century

Reappraising Rauschenberg across the 20th century, with a particular focus on his relationship to Italy and its most salient artistic movements

Italy has always been entwined with the work of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)--from his first visit at the age of 26 to his capturing of the International Grand Prize in Painting at the 1964 Venice Biennale. He continued to reference the country in his oeuvre, whether through found objects and scrap metal picked up in Venice and Naples or through more metaphorical references such as his Bellini print series. In celebration of the centenary of his birth, the Museo del Novecento staged an exhibition to an artist who without hyperbole can be considered one of the 20th century's most revolutionary artists. This bilingual English/Italian catalog interweaves his tireless decades-long experimentation--across sculpture, painting, assemblage, installation and more--with the movements that shaped his philosophy, from Futurism to Arte Povera.