Global Loft (Spread)

Maker Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925 - 2008)

Collections

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1979

Mediumsolvent transfer on fabric and paper collage to wooden panels with acrylic paint, three metal brushes

Dimensions96 x 111 in. (243.8 x 281.9 cm.)

SignedSigned in center of each panel in black ink on verso: Rauschenberg 79

InscribedSigned in center of each panel in black ink on verso: Rauschenberg 79 Panel 1: Inscribed in top right in black ink on verso: 79.017 Inscribed in top left in black ink on verso: LL (600) Inscribed in center of panel in black ink on verso: Global Loft [underlined] / Part I of III Bar code sticker affixed in top right of verso Label affixed in center: Leo Castelli 420 West Broadway, New York, NY 10012 / (600) Robert Rauschenberg / GLOBAL LOFT (SPREAD) [underlined], 1979 / solvent transfer on fabric collage, paper / collage, acrylic paint, metal, all materials / mounted on three wooden panels / 96" x 111" assembled size / three panels, 96" x 37" each / RIGHT PANEL (one of three) Label affixed to crossbar in center of verso: hague art deliveries inc. / art packers / 420 West Broadway / New York, NY 10012 / tel 212-431-4260 / lot no. 19723 piece no 3 Panel 2: Inscribed in top right in black ink on verso: 79.017 Inscribed in top left in black ink on verso: LL (600) Inscribed in center of panel in black ink on verso: Global Loft [underlined] / Part II of III Bar code sticker affixed in top right of verso Label affixed in center: Leo Castelli 420 West Broadway, New York, NY 10012 / (600) Robert Rauschenberg / GLOBAL LOFT (SPREAD) [underlined], 1979 / solvent transfer on fabric collage, paper / collage, acrylic paint, metal, all materials / mounted on three wooden panels / 96" x 111" assembled size / three panels, 96" x 37" each / CENTER PANEL (two of three) Panel 3: Inscribed in top right in black ink on verso: 79.017 Inscribed in top left in black ink on verso: LL (600) Inscribed in center of panel in black ink on verso: Global Loft [underlined] / Part III of III Bar code sticker affixed in top right of verso Label affixed in center: Leo Castelli 420 West Broadway, New York, NY 10012 / (600) Robert Rauschenberg / GLOBAL LOFT (SPREAD) [underlined], 1979 / solvent transfer on fabric collage, paper / collage, acrylic paint, metal, all materials / mounted on three wooden panels / 96" x 111" assembled size / three panels, 96" x 37" each / LEFT PANEL (three of three)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Anonymous gift in memory of Robert Shapazian

Label TextRauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas, where, he said, “it was very easy to grow up without ever seeing a painting.” After briefly studying pharmacology, he served in the United States Navy (1943–46). While stationed in San Diego, he visited The Huntington and, inspired by the paintings he encountered, realized that art was something a person could do for a living.

A versatile and prolific artist, Rauschenberg is credited with moving the American art scene beyond Abstract Expressionism, the dominant movement of the post-war years, and beyond the established mediums of painting and sculpture with his “Combines,” his term for objects that blur the two. After an interlude in performance and dance during the 1960s, Rauschenberg returned to paintings that utilized appropriated images and found objects. Global Loft (Spread) is part of Rauschenberg’s Spread series from the late 1970s and early 1980s, which shows him reflecting on his own career as well as art history broadly.

In Global Loft, Rauschenberg employs a traditional compositional device by dividing the surface into thirds. Various elements, such as the glue brushes and images of the earth from space, appear in triplicate. While an aesthetic resonance is created among the recognizable images and materials, together they do not suggest a clear linear narrative. Rauschenberg elicits a feeling that the parts are understood without conveying a single, specific meaning for the whole.

Status

On view

Object number2012.8