Robert Rauschenberg: Transfer Drawings from the 1960s

Featuring 42 of Robert Rauschenberg's pioneering Transfer Drawings of the 1960s, this book reproduces almost half of the works that were made in that tumultuous decade. The historical watershed of 1968 is especially well represented by 23 drawings, at least 15 of which were shown in the influential Ileana Sonnabend Gallery, Paris, in October of that year. They have never been seen before now in the U.S. The imagery in these drawings suggests a growing political consciousness, first engaging the civil rights movement, followed by the Vietnam War and other events of the stormy era. This small but exquisite volume is an absorbing sequel to the 2005-06 international touring exhibition of Rauschenberg's Combines, taking up where those multi-media constructions left off. Among the featured works are "Mainspring" (1965), the largest of the transfer drawings, and selections from the artist's own collection.

Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1925. After studying in Paris on the G.I. Bill in his twenties, he returned to the U.S., pausing only to investigate the Black Mountain College art scene before taking on—and swiftly conquering—New York. He had his first solo show at Leo Castelli Gallery in his early thirties, and quickly went on to become one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Rauschenberg is represented in every major museum collection, and many retrospective exhibitions of his work have toured the globe—including a thematic one at the Guggenheim Museum in 1997. In 1970, he moved to Captiva Island, off the Gulf Coast of Florida, where he still lives and works.