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Surface Series from Currents

1970
(American, 1925–2008)
America, 20th century
screenprint
Support: Aqua B 844 paper
Sheet: 111.6 x 111.6 cm (43 15/16 x 43 15/16 in.); Image: 89 x 89 cm (35 1/16 x 35 1/16 in.)
Gift of Joseph and Lucy Russell 2011.109
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Catalogue raisonné: Foster 152, no. 115
Impression: printer's proof 1
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Description

Robert Rauschenberg questioned the relationship of art and the news in a moment of great social and political change. He collaged headlines and images from mainstream and counterculture newspapers published in early 1970. This jumble of scraps evokes the artist’s studio tabletop or a newspaper designer’s light table. To make the final printing plate, Rauschenberg manually cut and pasted different elements together (in the form of photographic negatives), visually presenting the tension between art and the news where the photographs overlap. The gridded arrangement of the halftone dots conflict and create an optical effect known as moiré pattern.
Surface Series from Currents

Surface Series from Currents

1970

Robert Rauschenberg, Dayton's Gallery 12 and Castelli Graphics

(American, 1925–2008)
America, 20th century

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