Exercise 1.4 Collect, combine, construct
Aims:
• To explore working onto a horizontal surface; consider this your ‘receptor surface’.
Steinberg, 1968:61-98
• To work ‘out of’ the object table you developed in exercise 1. This means that rather than represent what you see, you are going to work intuitively and use the visual, material and formal elements of the table to inspire the work you create in this exercise.
• To consider the encounter with a painting as it takes on some of the formal and material language of sculpture. This may be your encounter with your own work as it develops, and/or the viewer’s encounter with a painting.
Research
From the mid-1950s, Robert Rauschenberg used the term Combine’s to describe his works. A hybrid between painting and sculpture and an ongoing dialogue between mediums, the handmade and the readymade, and between the gestural brushstroke and the mechanically reproduced image. Influenced by such artists as Kurt Schwitters, these dense layering’s comprised all manner of everyday objects incorporated with paint and collage. (Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, 2019)
As suggested, Rauschenberg incorporated a wide range of non-artistic materials into his artwork many of which would have developed over time and often with numerous iterations before he considered it finished.
Viewing Rauschenberg’s artwork, I struggled to make sense of it at first glance, yet I found it aesthetically pleasing. Darting from one picture to the next I found myself initially draw to identifiable objects, colours or form. With closer scrutiny other objects become evident; rags, newspaper cuttings, wood, metal whilst others are deliberately obscured. One such example is Bed (1955). The viewer will inevitably recognise the piece as a bed with quilt and pillow. Paint appears to have been randomly splashed and dribbled whilst other brush marks appear more deliberate. Mounted vertically – its symbolic gesture requires an understanding of the artist which leaves one to draw conclusions that this may be of reference to his failed marriage to Susan Weil and his documented affairs with Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns. (Delavan, 2018)
In The Flatbed Picture Plane, Leo Steinberg writes: “I tend to regard the tilt of the picture plane from vertical to horizontal as expressive of the most radical shift in the subject matter of art, the shift from nature to culture.” (Steinberg, 1972)
Leo Steinberg (1920-2011) was a Russian-born American art critic and art historian. His studies of pictorial space, The Flatbed Picture Plane”, published in 1972 examined Rauschenberg concept of defining space and other forms of pictorial art, mainly Renaissance and Abstract expressionism which up until the 1950s had been viewed as an upright surface, and usually wall mounted.
Although numerous artists such as Duchamp, Monet and Schwitters contributed to this move in their own works, Steinberg felt that Robert Rauschenberg was the father of this unique surface.
Rauschenberg’s work was devoid of such constraints as he pioneered a means of presenting work on a horizontal, flatbed picture plane. Horizontal bases, tabletops and house collections of everyday objects embedded in the surface was a new artistic language. Finished works could be viewed vertically and horizontally, giving the viewer a different experience of the work. Pieces were “no longer to be read on a vertical picture plane but had now become a “flat picture plane”.
John Cage observed that Rauschenberg’s work was not a composition in the conventional sense but could be described as “where things are, like a collection of objects on a tabletop or a town seen from the air”, (Harrison and Wood, 2003)
Objects could be removed, and others take their place as the artist desired. The viewer interaction was deciding where to look, I what sequence and how they perceived to understand the work.
Still life and Combine
For my own piece I started with a stretched canvas (45.5×56 cm). With an old vest top pulled over the canvas I applied an acrylic paint with a roller. Once the clothing was removed the imprint remained.
Contemplating which of my table objects to incorporate in my combine I opted for the most unlikely. A cardboard structure. I considering cutting through the canvas to secure the object but decided that this might compromise the strength of the frame. I also thought about deconstructing the object and using it in some other means. In the end I decided that I wanted to maintain the integrity if the object, so I cut a straight edge which was then attached to the canvas using PVA glue. (See figure 1)
The combine went through numerous iterations, materials added and removed, and multiple layers of paint applied. However, my objective was to produce a coherent piece of work by translating the Object Table to the Combine, with consideration of space, texture and the relationship between objects and the frame. It took some time for the piece to evolve through exploring and experimenting with ideas; although I still do not feel as if this is the finished piece. (See figure 2)
Reflection
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this exercise, but I still felt constrained by my own inhibitions, or I may have just been over thinking it! From a positive aspect I love the texture and feel of this piece of work, and the gesture of open space. However, I felt that the table object may have constrained my creativity and decision making to use of similar materials or incorporate collage.
Although I was not content with the outcome, this piece of work provided an array of ideas that to take forward to painting in the round: texture, space, scale and the relationship between objects and the space beyond the frame or structure.
References
Craft, C., 2015. When John Cage Met Robert Rauschenberg | Art | Agenda | Phaidon. [online] Phaidon. Available at: <https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2015/march/02/when-john-cage-met-robert-rauschenberg/> [Accessed 17 March 2020].
Delavan, T., 2018. How An Eight-Month Trip Shifted The Course Of Art History. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/t-magazine/cy-twombly-robert-rauschenberg-art-travel.html> [Accessed 16 March 2020].
Harrison, C. and Wood, P., 2003. Art In Theory 1900-2000. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, pp.734-737.
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. n.d. Combine (1954–64). [online] Available at: <https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/series/combine> [Accessed 16 March 2020].
Steinberg, L., 1972. Excerpt From Other Criteria: The Flatbed Picture Plane. [online] Web.mit.edu. Available at: <http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/othercriteria.pdf> [Accessed 17 March 2020].
Painting 2 - Studio practice 