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Robert Rauschenberg, Transfer Drawings from the 1950s and 1960s

Past exhibition
2 December 2016 - 13 January 2017
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Robert Rauschenberg, Complete Relaxation, 1958

Robert Rauschenberg American, 1925-2008

Complete Relaxation, 1958
solvent transfer with gouache, watercolour, graphite and black crayon on Strathmore paper mounted on board
22 3/4 x 28 3/4 inches
57.8 x 73 cm
signed and dated verso
Rauschenberg Foundation archive no. RRF 58.D032
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York,
Registry #LCD-29
Complete Relaxation dates from the the first year of Robert Rauschenberg's intensive involvement with the transfer drawing process. An idyllic sounding title names a work that is much about doubling....
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Complete Relaxation dates from the the first year of Robert Rauschenberg's intensive involvement with the transfer drawing process.

An idyllic sounding title names a work that is much about doubling. This is especially true of the pair of perpendicular figures at the centre, placed on either side of a protective suited diver (or astronaut?). The pair to the right is slightly fainter, as a second use of a source image would be, and they strongly recall the Dante and Virgil stand-ins in the contemporary Dante illustrations,
begun the same year. The woman exercising at upper left is also a doubled identical image, stacked
vertically and the circular diagram at top centre is excised and doubled at some distance, at the lower left corner, just below a pair of jewels.

The circle proves to be part of a diagrammatic land map, labelled ‘Acquire for Addition to Division’.
It shows three streets: Dayton and Newtown Lanes, and Main Street. The former two are indeed parallel lanes that intersect with Main Street in East Hampton, Long Island, a popular
destination for post-war artists. Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns visited the area the following summer. They were part of a large group photograph by John Gruen that included artists Larry Rivers and Grace Hartigan on nearby Water Mill beach.
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Provenance

Galerie Daniel Cordier, Paris
Private Collection, USA

Private Collection

Exhibitions

Rome, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rauschenberg, 30 May - 1 June 1959

Paris, Galerie Daniel Cordier, Robert Rauschenberg, 27 April - 8 June 1961

New York, Stellan Holm Gallery, Robert Rauschenberg, Transfer Drawings, 1958- 1969, 1 November 2011 to 17 December 2011

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