Rauschenberg - part II
Monday, August 25th, 2008Trying to decide which prints to buy in the face of rising prices, dealers have begun to identify elements that are considered keys to the artist’s iconography.
One dealer in Wisconsin believes that the artist’s Combines (early paintings with 3-dimensional collage elements) are important sign posts in the work. He reports: “When my wife and I visited the Metropolitan Museum last year to see Rauschenberg¹s retrospective of early works, we both agreed that Rauschenberg’s use of collage to create a kind of visual poetry is what makes him a great innovator.” He recently bought and then quickly sold a work entitled “Most distant visible part of the sea / Umbrellas”, 1983 that was an offset lithograph with collage, embossing and pencil. Hamilton-Selway is offering a similar work
entitled, “Yellow Body”, 1971 a silkscreen that was published by Styria Studio, considered one of the finest silkscreen ateliers of the period (they have since closed). One gallery owner I spoke to believes that the artist’s multiples are hidden treasures: “I have recently purchased a work from the “Publicon” series done at Gemini in 1979. These works are very complicated. For example, “Publicon Station III” is enamel on wood construction, collaged with laminated silk, cotton, steel, mirrors and enamel on polished aluminum. It was an edition of 30 and measures 171 inches high by 79 1/2 inches wide and 38 inches in diameter.”
Completing the catalogue raisonne could really help lift the market. Bill Goldston who is one of the executors of the Rauschenberg estate and his atelier ULAE is organizing the effort. Axsom believes that when completed, there will be four volumes, each with approximately 250 works. The first volume, that will cover the years 1948 through 1972 is due out in the near future, but the final date has not been set yet. In the meantime, Gemini G.E.L. has frozen all sales of their editions until the estate is settled. That could take some time, and it is almost certain that there will be substantial increases in prices when Gemini reopens the inventory. Happily, Hamilton-Selway Fine Art has quite a few works in inventory, at least for now.
In September, 2009, NASA will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon shot. Axsom is organizing a concurrent exhibit of the 34 “Stoned Moon” lithographs created at Gemini G.E.L in 1969-1970 that will be seen at the Madison Center for Contemporary Art in Wisconsin (the show will travel). The series was inspired by Rauschenberg’s invitation by NASA to Cape Canaveral to witness the launch of the rocket that would land a man on the moon. According to Axsom, the title “Stoned Moon” is a very Rauschenbergian triple pun: lithographic stone, moon rocks and, ahem, stoned on weed. Axsom recalled that last year, when he asked Rauschenberg for permission to mount the exhibit, the artist’s curator and archivist, David White faxed Rauschenberg’s response with the words: “He’s ready for lift off when you are.” One of the reasons Rauschenberg remained a leading artist during his long life is that he was always far ahead of the curve, waiting for the rest of us to reach him.
12th, he left behind an enormous legacy of graphic work. Richard H. Axsom, who has been asked to pen the catalogue raisonne for the prints has counted nearly 1000 editions, produced over sixty years.
Trips to other foreign climes have always inspired the artist and his discoveries were often incorporated in this prints. He spontaneously collage indigenous fabrics and local odds and ends (Rauschenberg was not above picking up debris on the street), as well as photos into his prints. Axsom remembers that Rauschenberg’s famous sculptural “Cardbird” pieces created in the 1970s and published by Gemini were the result of the artist’s move to the remote island of Captiva. He was removed from an urban setting to a pristine island and found, to his chagrin, that there was no detritus to inspire him. So he ended up using his own personal garbage - his moving boxes - to make into art!
season after May 12th, there were indications that the market was shifting. A work incorrectly catalogued as “Untitled,” 1968 (it is actually called “Love Zone” and is from the “Reels” series) appeared in an obscure Los Angeles auction house in a design sale on June 29th, fetching a surprising $7,200 with premium, far above its estimate of $1,000-1,500. Curiously, another print from the same series entitled “Flower Re-Run” offered at the French auction house Christophe Joron-Derem on June 18th did less well, fetching only [Euro]1,700 ($2,645), well within the [Euro] 1,500-2,000 estimate. Some insiders have concluded that the price increases at this early stage may be solely an American phenomenon.
illustration for a Time magazine cover that would herald the 1970s. Rauschenberg felt, however, that the 1970s was really a continuation of the 1960s and inserted images of Janis Joplin, Martin Luther King, the moon landing, and the Kennedy Assassination. The cover was rejected by the Time Magazine editors who wanted to look forward to hopefully better times than the tumultuous 60s. Leo Castelli (Rauschenberg¹s dealer at the time) stepped in and published a photosilkscreen edition of the collage.
Before the skulls, Hirst stated painting spots, which he purposely created as a way to brand himself. Of his spot paintings, Hirst claims, “I only painted the first five and I was like, ‘f#!* this’, I hated it. As soon as I sold one, I used the money to pay people to make them. They were better at it than me. I get bored.” One such assistant asked if she could have a spot painting when she left the workshop. Hirst said she could make one of her own, perceptively quipping, “The only difference between one painted by you and one of mine is the money.” (Hirst quoted in David Cohen, ‘Inside the factory that is making Damien Hirst the world’s richest artist’, Evening Standard, 30 August 2007)
consumerist idea.” As a logo, the spots can conjure a range of associations with Hirst—namely hip, edgy, cool youth culture. Because the spots are so easily reproducible and adaptable, they are able to attach to a multitude of hosts, embedding themselves in cultural space and promoting the Hirst brand. They appear on the Tate shuttle boat, adorning a singer on “Top of the Pops”, and even a Mini.
About the only work Hirst does on his spots is name them. The colors are picked at random by his assistants and arranged in a grid pattern. The negative space equals the diameter of the spots, imposing order on the random choice of colors. The artist explains the source of inspiration for his series of spot paintings: “The aim is to set up a kind of visual humming… they represent the ultimate variety of life… and are random attempts to communicate within a rigid 
system.” He has also said the spots were inspired by commercial drug firm catalogues. Hirst gives these pharmaceutical names like Apotryptophanase, connecting them with one of Hirst’s most famous installations, Pharmacy. Hirst has long held an interest in medicine – his company is called Science and he opened a restaurant in Notting Hill called Pharmacy. For Hirst medicine is much like art in that it provides a belief system which is just as seductive as it is futile. In the end, we all end up dead.