New Rauschenberg exhibit debuts

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Images of everyday life -- battered traffic signs, graffiti, lone bicycles -- collide on murals in a new exhibit by Robert Rauschenberg at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

The series, "Scenarios," which opened Saturday, contains 17 works derived from Rauschenberg's massive collection of photographs, magazines and newspapers.

"It's a seemingly random mass of images, but really each piece is a little snapshot of what you see around you," said Joanna Marsh, acting curator of contemporary art at the Wadsworth.

Panels measuring 7 feet by 10 feet hold the colorful images. Each work in the collection is unique and tells a different story, but it's clear that they belong together.

"It's a loose vignette," Marsh said.

There are images from urban, suburban and rural life. "Nomads Welcome" is an assemblage of an abandoned trailer (with a message that reads: "Happy Camping! Welcome"), an empty tire swing and a painting of a buffalo hanging on a wall.

"It is a whole series of disconnected images and fragments that come together to form a whole, a life or a culture," museum director Willard Holmes said. "His work is the scrapbook of 20th century America."

Along with "Scenarios," the show also includes two portfolios from "Currents," Rauschenberg's 1970 black-and-white collage and silkscreen series.

Two months of newspaper excerpts make up the 36 collages. Loud headlines and graphic photographs tell of a turbulent time in American history: the Vietnam War, racial tension, corporate corruption and drug use.

"It's almost explosive," Marsh said.

The "Gluts," a series of metal wall reliefs and sculptures, adds a 3-D quality to the exhibit. Rauschenberg began collecting the pieces in 1986 when Port Arthur, Texas, his hometown, was in the midst of a deep recession due to a depression in the oil and gas industry. The collection includes twisted metal parts and rusted traffic signs. Rauschenberg described the pieces as "souvenirs with nostalgia."

"He was really struck by the landscape of decay and debris," Marsh said.

Rauschenberg first appeared at the Wadsworth 40 years ago. The artist's famed "Erased de Kooning Drawing" had its first public showing with other early work in the group exhibition "Black, White and Grey: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture," in 1964. The same year, the museum formally acquired "Retroactive I," a silk-screened painting of President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated months earlier.

The Wadsworth's "Robert Rauschenberg: Current Scenarios" ends Sept. 5 and will not travel.

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