Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

Figure 21. Robert Rauschenberg. Inlet. 1959.Combine painting. Los Angeles Museumof Contemporary Artbetween art and life. The popartists wanted to create art, notwork in Rauschenberg’s gapbetween art and life.By the early 1960s Rauschenberg’spalette became bolderand brighter, and he beganexperiments with commercialsilk screen and lithographythat would continue for therest of his career. But he stillused these new mediumsto reflect the visual chaos ofcontemporary urban life. Hereproduced photographs, artprints, and magazine imageson photosensitive silkscreen,which was then printed oncanvas, promiscuously mixing,merging, superimposing,and painting over imagesjumbled together in amore complex continuity thanwas possible with the threedimensionalcombines. Hecreated similar collage-likeimages adapted to the revivedmedium of lithography. Afew years later, he helpedspearhead Experiments inArt and Technology (E.A.T.),an organization of about six thousand engineers, scientists, and artists thatundertook experimental collaborations between art and technology. Heeven created artworks that combined lithographic and silkscreen imagerywith electrified mechanical constructions of Plexiglas and aluminum. Inall of these mediums and others up to the present day, Rauschenberg managedto produce memorable artworks based on his ability to capture livelycompositions within the tension between beauty and ugliness or betweenform and chaos.136