Rauschenberg & Johns

National Gallery of Australia, ACT
11 Jun 2022 – 29 Jan 2023

Touring dates

2023/2024

• Araluen Arts Centre, NT
  11 Mar – 14 May 2023
• Ipswich Art Gallery, QLD
  3 Jun – 30 Jul 2023
• Cairns Art Gallery, QLD
  9 Sep – 19 Nov 2023
• Museum of Art and Culture yapang Lake Macquarie, NSW
  9 Dec – 4 Feb 2024

In 1953, on the corner of a New York City street, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008, United States) met Jasper Johns (b 1930, United States). These two young artists fell in love at a time when it was illegal to be in a same-sex relationship. It was also a time when New York’s artistic culture was dominated by Abstract Expressionism, an art movement of expressive gestures arising from the self or inner psyche. Not wanting to publicly expose their feelings and desires through art, Rauschenberg and Johns began a private creative dialogue, introducing everyday signs, objects and media into their work to create a distinctive, coded visual style. While their relationship would end in 1961, this formative exchange resonated throughout their lives and art. They became two of America’s most celebrated artists of the twentieth century.

In the late 1960s both Rauschenberg and Johns worked with celebrated printmaker Kenneth Tyler to create groundbreaking works in lithography and screenprint. Their experimental engagement with print processes made them important figures in the revival of printmaking in the United States. Expanding on ideas developed in their private creative dialogue, Rauschenberg and Johns helped reshape American printmaking.