Title of Artwork: “Bed”
Artwork by Robert Rauschenberg
Year Created 1955
Summary of Bed
Bed, one of Rauschenberg’s earliest “combines,” blurs the line between painting and sculpture with its Dadaist assemblage of traditional materials and the trash of daily life.
All About Bed
Artworks by Rauschenberg that combine painting and sculpture were coined the term “combine” in the 1950s and ’60s. If the legend is true or not, Rauschenberg’s bed linens were used as a canvas when he ran out of canvas, so he began scribbling on the pillow, sheets, and quilt with a pencil before splattering and dripping paint on them in a flurry.
It was then attached to a wooden support in the shape of a rectangular canvas, and the pillow and quilt were attached so that it appeared as if the bed had been made with only one corner untucked. He used a loose, dripped, gestural style of painting that is reminiscent of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning’s signature marks.
Even though brushstrokes were no longer used to express the artist’s thoughts, they were used to signal a shift in the avant-approach garde’s to reality. Because the found objects were items that Rauschenberg owned and used in his daily life, rather than an aesthetic sign borrowed from another generation, they provide a more accurate portrait of the artist.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
