Exhibition
Robert Rauschenberg
12 Jun 2016 – 21 Aug 2016
Address
- 798 Art District
- No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu
- Beijing
Beijing - 100015
- China
Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), considered to be among the most influential and prolific American artists of the 20th century, was also one of the first Western artists to exhibit in China.
About
His solo November 1985 exhibition at what is now the National Art Museum of China in Beijing exposed Chinese artists to non-traditional methods of art-making for the first time, inspiring them to experiment and work beyond the academic painting and sculpture techniques taught in China’s state art academies. Perhaps more than any other event, this exhibition spurred the flowering of advanced artistic expression later labeled the “’85 New Wave.”
More than three decades after this initial encounter, UCCA will present The 1/4 Mile or Two Furlong Piece in the Great Hall, a stunning 450-meter long composition that Rauschenberg began in 1981 and continued to expand upon until 1998, a period that also encompasses his two trips to China and his work with “ROCI,” the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange. The monumental painting, which has not been shown since 1999, functions as a personal retrospective, tracing the various periods of his practice and his unending experimentations with artistic processes. It will be supplemented with a presentation of Rauschenberg’s work in color photography that grew out of his China travels, as well as documentation and ephemera related to his historic 1985 exhibition. Curated by Susan Davidson and David White, the exhibition is realized in collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
