Robert Rauschenberg

Black and white portrait photo of Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg holding mylar element for the "Stoned Moon" series, Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, 1969

Photographer: Malcolm Lubliner
Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002

Robert Rauschenberg (born 1925) was enticed to work at Gemini GEL in 1966. For Rauschenberg, Tyler’s promise that scale was not a problem was assurance enough. He decided to make a life–sized self–portrait — an X–ray in the nude except for a pair of large boots. This X–ray became the key element for the print, Booster of 1967. Its groundbreaking size required the use of two lithographic stones placed in the press one after the other, with the paper run through twice to complete the image.

Booster remains one of the most significant prints made in the 20th century, helping to take printmaking into a new era in which prints were to rival paintings in invention and size.

Rauschenberg’s next project with Gemini GEL was a revolutionary print series, Stoned moon of 1969–70. The artist had been invited by NASA (the National Aeronautic and Space Administration) to witness the launch from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, of the rocket that would land a man on the moon. The artist found the whole experience astounding, particularly the combination of the high–tech event with the human struggle to support the venture. This juxtaposition of technology and the everyday inspired his imagery. For example, he noticed a bird’s nest perched high on a NASA structure and he included this image in his prints.

At Tyler’s recommendation Rauschenberg spent some time at Moulin à Papier Richard de Bas, in Ambert, a French papermaking mill that dated back to the 13th century. One of the 12 paperworks he made there is Link of 1974, a collage of brilliantly coloured inked pulp and screenprinted tissue—a page from a 20th–century version of a luminous medieval manuscript.

This venture heralded the future of handmade paper in the Tyler workshops.

Jane Kinsman

Works in the Kenneth E. Tyler Collection

Browse all of Robert Rauschenberg's works

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Prints & Drawings /  Video

Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others – Curatorial Introduction

Published 16 March 2023

Curator David Greenhalgh introduces the exhibition 'Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others'

Audio Tour Open Captioning
11 minutes
Exhibition

Pierre Bonnard
Observing Nature

Past Exhibition
Poster depicting a woman in yellow dress holding a champagne coupe overflowing with bubbles

7 Mar 2003 – 9 Jun 2003

This exhibition sought to reassess the art of Bonnard, bringing together more than 110 paintings, drawings, lithographs and photographs.

Exhibition

First Impressions
The Early History of Lithography – A Comparative Survey

Past Exhibition
Drawing of angel sitting on a rock

3 May – 24 Aug 2003

This exhibition drew on the impressive volume of work that forms part of the Gallery's Felix Man Collection, much of which had never been on display.

Exhibition

Picasso
The Vollard Suite Prints 1927 – 1937

Past Exhibition
Print of an elderly man

27 Oct – 9 Dec 1984

In 1984 the National Gallery acquired the Vollard Suite by Picasso, perhaps the most famous graphic suite of the 20th Century.

Exhibition

The Birth of the Modern Poster

Past Exhibition
Print of a green goblin holding a bottle of alcohol upon a black background. Yellow text underneath reads Maurin Quina

10 Feb – 13 May 2007

The Birth of the Modern Poster examined poster art and its evolution from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

Exhibition

Creating Worlds

Past Exhibition
Circular Indigenous work depicting the ancestral Lightening Snake rising up at the start of the wet season in eastern Arnhem Land. Painted via a repeating pattern of circular shapes within one another

23 Feb – 4 Aug 2013

Creating worlds explores artists’ responses to issues of sustainability and the natural environment.

Exhibition

Welcome to the Water Planet
Paperworks by James Rosenquist

Past Exhibition
A collage of Futuristic, multicoloured spaceship imagery

10 Jun 2006 – 12 Sep 2006

James Rosenquist used 720 sheets of handmade paper which show the earth as a rich but vulnerable planet under threat from a growing consumer culture.

Kenneth E. Tyler Collection

The Kenneth E. Tyler Collection

A couple embrace in front of a colourful artwork

From 1966 until 2001 master printer Kenneth Tyler collaborated with some of the twentieth century's most brilliant artists.

Exhibition

Frank Stella
The Kenneth Tyler Print Collection

Past Exhibition
a bright screenprint with geometric patterns and shapes collaged together

19 Nov 2016 – 22 Oct 2017

A showcase of Frank Stella's adventurous and groundbreaking prints that helped shape the development of 20th century printmaking.

Exhibition

Ken Tyler
Printer Extraordinary

Past Exhibition

6 Jun 1985 – 13 Oct 1985

Ken Tyler was the founder of two major graphic workshops, has become one of America's greatest printers in the past two decades.