Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)

Robert Raushcenberg died on Monday 12 May at the age of 82.
Recognised as an heir to Dada and precursor of Pop Art, he glued, assembled and happily combined all sorts of images and materials from his era, playing on their interaction in terms of shape, texture and colour. In 1958, Léo Castelli took him under his wing and organised an exhibition for him. At the time, his technique of Combine-Painting or Combineswas already well developed and he started to explore the transfer technique using solvents in his drawings.

The turning point in his career came in 1964 at the Venice Biennial. Robert RAUSCHENBERG was the first American Painter to receive the Grand Prize for Painting. Thereafter, all eyes were focused on the new artistic scene in America which captured the limelight from the Ecole de Paris artists.The Grand Prize and a retrospective exhibition in London the same year, crowned 10 years of innovative work in which the artist practiced the art of re-using “leftovers”… Numerous exhibitions followed and he soon became internationally recognised. Although recognised as a major contemporary artist for close to half a century, it wasn’t until 2006 that his auction prices really accelerated: after a decade of stability his price index shot up 270% between 2006 and the beginning of 2008.

In 2007 his cumulative auction revenue amounted to over 20 million euros, representing more than the total generated over the five previous years (between 2002 and 2005)! During the same year, four of his works sold above the million-dollar line: three at the May 2007 sales and one in November: a very large – but relatively recent – acrylic entitled Primo Calle Roci Venezuela (measuring over 5 metres, dated 1985, for 2.3 million dollars, at Sotheby’s).

Three Robert Rauschenberg paintings were sold on the 14th of this month at Sotheby’s big New York Contemporary Art sale. The most sought-after piece, Overdrive – a large mixed-technique work on canvas – had been in a private European collection since 1963. The work went under the hammer within its estimated price range at 13 million dollars, establishing a new price record for the artist.

The following two works came form the Helga and Walther Lauffs collection: the combine-painting SLUG (1961) failed to reach its low estimate of 3 million dollars and sold for $2.5m. Rauschenberg’s RED BODY, a lively work on paper dated 1969 and mixing pencil, gouache and solvent transfer elicited more enthusiasm: estimated at between $500,000 and $700,000 it finally sold for $850,000.

Rauschenberg’s works are indeed hotly disputed at auction as the supply of his major works – not already in private collections or museums – is undeniably drying up. On the other hand, the rising prices may well prompt some collectors into reselling, which could offer the market a small number of exceptional quality pieces… as was the case for Overdrive on May 14 last.