Hamilton-Selway Fine Art

When Robert Rauschenberg died on May 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.

Notoriously difficult to buttonhole, Rauschenberg has been described by New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman as someone who “…defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style. He pushed, prodded and sometimes reconceived all the mediums in which he worked.”

It was, after all Rauschenberg who famously quipped, “The second half of the 20th century is no time to start drawing on rocks,” when asked why he had abandoned traditional lithography for photography. Over the decades, Rauschenberg worked with numerous publishers (ULAE; Graphicstudio USF; Gemini and Styria Studio to name the primary ones) as well as scores of benefit prints for non-profit organizations.

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!

Although exhilarating, the sifting and sleuthing for Rauschenberg prints can be daunting. The sheer magnitude of his graphic oeuvre has been a boon for collectors, who have been acquiring inexpensive prints for decades due to the ample supply. “When you think of the art historical importance of Rauschenberg, it is hard to believe his prices are so reasonable,” reports collector Ryan Van der Wielen, a Saint Louis native who has started buying the prints. But prices could be going up now that the artist has died. The question is: when, and how much?

Despite the few auctions remaining in the 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.

Despite such mixed signals, a recent surge of interest in one print is quite clear. “Signs,” 1970, was originally created as an 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.

With a large edition size of 250, the work has never shown much price movement until now. On May 2nd, just days before the artists death, the print fetched $13,750 at Sothebys. When it appeared two weeks later in the newly formed print department at Phillips de Pury (headed by former Christies print specialists Cary Leibowitz and Kelly Troester) it set a new world record at $27,400.

Continued…

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