Thursday, May 15, 2008

RIP, Robert Rauschenberg

Now that Rauschenberg has died, perhaps we can move beyond (be finished with) his kind of late Modernist/postmodern art. Some of his works were interesting. Some were clever. But if we judge him by his effect on art, I'm not sure how well he'll be judged. Naturally, everyone's throwing in their two cents' worth, from Left to Right. His iconoclasm will undoubtedly be praised -- but what is praiseworthy about attacking what is at the very center of art? In the end, praising one's iconoclasm is praising one's hatred for beauty.

Over on TCSDaily, there is an interview with Tom Wolfe who admitted that artists create for the same reason as God created: for their own glory. This is perhaps true enough. The artist does in a sense pull works out of "airy nothingness" (Shakespeare). More, artists seem compelled to create. And what are they creating but parts of themselves? An artist's art is a reflection of his or her soul, whatever else it may be. More, it is also an attempt to transform the world to reflect the artist him- or herself -- to approve of the things the artist approves of, to condemn the things the artist condemns, to see the world the way the artist sees it. That can be comic, tragic, or romantic, beautiful or ugly, serious or nonserious.

Who, then, was Rauschenberg? ANd what kind of world was he trying so hard to create?

8 comments:

Todd Camplin said...

The one of the greatest artist in the Post-War era, and you trash him. Rauschenberg went through so many phases of art. He created several art movements. I think his influence on future artists will be positive to future generations. Have you seen his later work, beautiful. He was way cooler than Picasso.

Troy Camplin said...

As per our conversation, let me reiterate that insofar as he was being comic, I can certainly appreciate much of his work. But certainly Erased de Koonig is an iconoclastic piece, and insofar as he did works that were anti-image, he was at times iconoclastic. I still stand by the statement that iconoclasm is both anti-art and anti-beauty, but just because R was sometimes iconoclastic, that does not mean he was always so. Still, those he influenced have dome the most damage to art and, even if we can say he was being funny about what he was doing, he is still responsible for influencing all those pomo "artists" we desperately need to move beyond. The King is dead; long live the King (whoever he may be that moves us beyond pomo).

Troy Camplin said...

Another article on Rauchenberg you may not like. At the end of the article, the author gets that it's supposed to be funny, but doesn't seem to care for the joke.

Todd Camplin said...

Tom is wrong about artists. Artist make things because they have to make things. Fame does not enter into it. Maybe when the artist get a taste of fame, he or show might pursue that fame, but I would suspect that artists that are chasing fame are trying to get a larger audience. An artist is nothing without his or her audience.

Todd Camplin said...

Roger's Rules said, "his (Rauschenberg's) work is primarily a highly commercial version of what Marcel Duchamp was doing in the Teens and Twenties with his “ready-mades.” In essence, it is a window-dresser’s version of Dada: Dada (slightly) prettified and turned into a formula–Dada, in short, for the masses." I agree that is why it is so good. I have heard Troy say that Toni Morrison is just Faulkner refined. Rauschenberg is like Duchamp refined.

Troy Camplin said...

That doesn't sound like he was arguing that R was more refined than D. He said R was making it more palatable, which doesn't necessarily mean it was more refined (though it may be).

Todd Camplin said...

I know Roger's Rules was not coming at that angle, because his article was a basic slam on R's work, but I think Roger's Rules was missing the point of R's work in an interesting way.

Troy Camplin said...

I think he both gets his work, and doesn't get it. He sees it as being a series of jokes, but doesn't get why it being funny might be the point.