Mark Borghi

Robert Rauschenberg

Primary Illusion (Urban Bourbon Series)

|

Primary Illusion (Urban Bourbon Series)

1989

 

Acrylic on enameled aluminum

49.5 x 48.75 inches

Signed and dated at bottom left: “Rauschenberg 89”

 

Ex Collection:
The Artist
Knoedler & Company (acquired 1990)
Private collection until 2014

 

Exhibited:
September Selections, Knoedler & Company, New York, September 2000.

Exhibition no. 3. Paint on Metal: Modern and Contemporary Exploration and Discoveries, Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona, January 29–May 1, 2005.

Rauschenberg x 4, Knoedler Project Space, New York, March 19–April 30, 2011.

 

Notes:
The Urban Bourbon series, created between 1988 and 1995, is distinguished by the use of bold primary colors on enameled and mirrored aluminum. The artist divided into a grid, juxtaposing enameled and mirrored areas to create an effect of flatness against reflectivity. He then covered these areas with screenprinted photographic images that abut and overlap one another. Finally, the artist activated the images with broad swipes of the brush and splashes of paint, revealing certain areas of underpainting while covering others. The effect is dramatic and explosive, not unlike the Combines and the silkscreened paintings. —adapted from Elizabeth Carpenter, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1997.


|