Tampa Clay Piece # 5
Artist
Robert Rauschenberg
(American, 1925 - 2008)
Date1972
Mediumclay and fiberglass
Dimensions86.4 × 45.7 × 7.6 cm
Credit LineThe Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Gift of Cheryll Woodbury 2015.
Copyright© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New-York / SOCAN, Montreal (2021)
Object number2015.6
Classificationssculpture
On View
Not on viewBy casting a fiberglass mail bag, Robert Rauschenberg’s Tampa Clay Piece 5 transforms found material into a fragile clay object. Other works in this series resemble damaged cardboard boxes—also rendered in clay. As Rauschenberg utilized actual found objects, such as cardboard and other throw away material, in many of his assemblages, the trompe l’oeil effect is especially quizzical.
Robert Rauschenberg worked in a wide range of subjects, styles, materials, and techniques, remaining independent of any particular affiliation. His belief that “painting relates to both art and life” lead him to embrace collaboration and create a dialogue between media that presented a direct challenge to the prevailing modernist aesthetic of the time.
Robert Rauschenberg worked in a wide range of subjects, styles, materials, and techniques, remaining independent of any particular affiliation. His belief that “painting relates to both art and life” lead him to embrace collaboration and create a dialogue between media that presented a direct challenge to the prevailing modernist aesthetic of the time.
