Zane Bennett Contemporary Art presents: Robert Rauschenberg: Soviet/ American Array - October 2014 Exclusive

Sandy Zane
Oct 3, 2014 10:13PM
Soviet / American Array V, 1990
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art
Soviet / American Array Vl, 1991
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art
Soviet / American Array llI, 1990
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art

Zane Bennett Contemporary Art is overjoyed to offer six works from Robert Rauschenberg's Soviet/ American Array  series for sale to our ARTSY clients.  This series clearly illustrates some of  Rauschenberg's finest and most important work in printmaking.  It is the gallery's pleasure to offer these monumental works to its clients with a special pricing range for the month of October 2014. 

One of the most renowned artists of the last 100 years, Robert Rauschenberg  was prolific in many art forms such as printmaking, sculpture and painting, among others.  Along with his "combine" sculptures, he is most widely known for his excellence and innovation in printmaking.  Highlighting the artist's unsurpassable skill in this medium, is his series Soviet / American Array (1988-1991).

This exclusive will run from October 1st, 2014 to October 31st, 2014.

" Rauschenberg first conceived the idea of an international tour of his work in 1976. He founded the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), which organized and funded the artist’s travels in the Americas, Europe, and Asia and exhibitions of his work in eleven different lands between 1984 and 1990. Most of the countries had minimal exposure to international contemporary art. For Rauschenberg, "one-to-one contact through art contains potent, peaceful powers . . . seducing us into creative mutual understandings for the benefit of all." The ROCI project was proof of his belief that "Art is educating, provocative, and enlightening even when first not understood."1  In each country, the artist traveled, photographed, and collected indigenous artifacts. Art works informed by the encounter between the American artist and the host country were then exhibited, some having been made abroad, others in Rauschenberg's studios in New York and Florida. While some critics decried this effort as naive (and even a form of cultural imperialism), Rauschenberg's monumental expenditure of personal funds over a decade and his donation of major works to the host countries should be recognized as a remarkable testament to the power of an individual to act outside of government to promote international communication.  Rauschenberg's trip to the former Soviet Union resulted in two significant bodies of work: fabric wall hangings and seven large photogravures on paper (the Akron Art Museum owns two). The photogravures were made on Long Island at Universal Limited Art Editions following trips to Leningrad, Moscow, Tbilisi, and Samarkand. They bring together photographs taken by Rauschenberg in the Soviet Union and the United States, placing communism and capitalism side by side and forcibly uniting the two former superpowers into one harmonious whole.  Soviet/American Array VII fulfills Rauschenberg's desire to bridge art and life. It refers to the real world but imposes numerous aesthetic choices in the selection of images, their cropping, the distinct blocks of color, and the unusual choice of photogravure for printing. This once-popular commercial process for reproducing photographs allows ink to seep into the paper, yielding a hazy, almost nostalgic quality, as if Cold War rivalry has been relegated to the past.  Some of the artist's favorite themes can be seen in Soviet/American Array VII, particularly that of the male figure at work and leisure. The two American construction workers linking hands to attack a bolt perfectly symbolize the artist's own lifelong commitment to collaboration, whether with choreographers, composers, or the masterful technicians who print photogravures. It is no accident that the arrow points up, a sign of optimism to thwart the nearby rubbish. Rauschenberg explained that as a young artist he wanted "to photograph the entire United States." Not hubris at all, Rauschenberg's impossible desire "to look at everything" and to embrace the entire world has impelled him for over forty years. "

- Dr.  Mitchell D. Kahan, 2001

Sandy Zane