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Rauschenberg & Johns

Significant Others

Touring Exhibition
Araluen Arts Centre, NT
11 Mar – 14 May 2023
Print in black and navy on white backbround with the word BLUE in capital letters and the mirror image of it

Jasper Johns, Gemini G.E.L., Bent "Blue"; from Fragments - according to what, 1971, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1973. © Jasper Johns. VAGA/Copyright Agency.

‘Jasper and I used to start each day by having to move out from Abstract expressionism. We were the only people who were not intoxicated with [them].’

Robert Rauschenberg

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  • Dates & Venues
  • Digital Publication
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About


In the early 1950s, at the height of the Abstract Expressionist movement, a new avant-garde began to emerge from a relationship between two young artists. From their run-down New York studios, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns began a private creative dialogue that introduced everyday signs, objects, and media into their work, collapsing the distinction between art and life. While their relationship would end after seven years, their art would continue to radiate the new ideas of their creative exchange.

This exhibition will draw upon the National Gallery’s Kenneth Tyler Collection of prints with works by both artists produced between 1967 and 1973, and holdings of key works by their predecessors and contemporaries.

Curator: David Greenhalgh, Kenneth E Tyler Assistant Curator, Prints and Drawings.

Jasper Johns, Gemini G.E.L. Color numeral series, 1968, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, © Jasper Johns/Copyright Agency, 2022, © Gemini Ltd/Kenneth E. Tyler

Robert Rauschenberg, Gemini G.E.L., Cardbird door; from Cardbird, 1971, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1975 © Robert Rauschenberg. VAGA/Copyright Agency

(from left) Robert Rauschenberg, Gemini G.E.L. Publicon - Station IV , 1978 and Publicon - Station I 1978, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra © Robert Rauschenberg/Copyright Agency, 2022, © Gemini Ltd/Kenneth E. Tyler

Installation view, Rauschenberg & Johns: significant others, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, 2022

Dates & Venues


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

Digital Publication


A screenshot of the Rauschenberg and digital publication landing page

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.

View Digital Publication

Large vertical print of a human skeleton. A blue chair overlaid in the top left hand corner.

Robert Rauschenberg, Gemini G.E.L., Kenneth Tyler, Booster; from Booster and 7 studies, 1967, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1973. © Robert Rauschenberg. VAGA/Copyright Agency.

Purple, red and yellow print with a number 1

Jasper Johns, Gemini G.E.L., Figure 1; from Color numeral series, 1969, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1973. © Jasper Johns. VAGA/Copyright Agency.

Print in black and green on white featuring two drills, a car wheel, and a lower torso

Robert Rauschenberg, Gemini G.E.L., Test stone #5A; from Booster and 7 studies, 1967, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1973. © Robert Rauschenberg. VAGA/Copyright Agency.

A lead relief - black background with a toothbrush imprint and four gold teeth as the bristles

Jasper Johns, Gemini G.E.L., The critic smiles; from Lead relief series, 1969, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1973. © Jasper Johns. VAGA/Copyright Agency.

A sculpture made from enamel on wood construction, collaged laminated silk, cotton, bicycle wheel, fluorescent light fixture, perspex, enamel on polished aluminium.

Robert Rauschenberg, Gemini G.E.L., Publicon - Station IV, 1978, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Purchased 1979. © Robert Rauschenberg. VAGA/Copyright Agency.

Stories & Ideas


Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others

It’s complicated

Artist Gary Carsley reflects on Rauschenberg and Johns's creative collusion

Read Time 18 minutes
Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others

Are you the subject or the object?

A work of contemporary sculpture with multiple colours and shapes in a clump on top of a tall white stand in a gallery space

Artist Marian Tubbs examines Johns and Rauschenberg's coded prints and assemblages.

Read Time 20 minutes

Related


Jasper Johns

Black and white photograph of Jasper Johns

One of 77 artists who collaborated with master printer Kenneth Tyler.

Prints & Drawings /  Video

Rauschenberg & Johns: Significant Others – Curatorial Introduction

Published 16 March 2023

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

Open Captioning
11 minutes
International Art

David Hockney
Prints

Past Exhibition
A figure dives into a pool with a splash!

11 Nov 2017—27 May 2018

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

Robert Rauschenberg
1967-1978

Past Exhibition
Collage with two elephants in the centre, small clock face, pill and fingertip images

1 Sep 2007—27 Jan 2008

History of Kenneth Tyler

Man in an art workshop using a large paint roller to press paint ink on stone

Kenneth Tyler was a revolutionizing force in the world of art.

Browse hundreds of current and past exhibitions

Current Exhibitions Exhibition History
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