What Is the Future of the Digital Catalogue Raisonné? A new initiative by the Rauschenberg Foundation is the latest to bring the catalogue raisonné online
By Adam Schrader
The Rauschenberg Foundation, dedicated to preserving the legacy of the late Texan artist Robert Rauschenberg, is beginning the task of creating his catalogue raisonné. It will be published online only, making it a relatively new phenomenon in the industry, which has been slow to catch on some three decades after the internet became available to the public.
That being said, it is not the first example to go digital. Researcher Emily Atwater noted the trend in an academic journal article in 2012, more than a decade after the National Gallery of Art launched one of the first pivotal archive projects in 2001.
At the time, Atwater noted the hurdles of transitioning to the web. Many of the issues she highlighted don’t seem to have caused major problems, such as concerns about the authority and authenticity of projects. In recent years, more digital catalogs by major artists have been published online.
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Jackie Foster, the project manager for the catalogue raisonné at the Rauschenberg Foundation, discussed the challenges her team and others have faced, ahead of the first phase being released next year.
“There is no Rauschenberg catalogue raisonné that already exists. We have a FileMaker Pro database that was used by the artist’s studio while he was working and we’re building that out and adapting it,” she said. “A lot of people start from scratch and have software intended to be used for a CR, but we’re using an existing database and making changes so it can work for a CR purpose.”
Among key differences from other digital catalogue raisonnés is that the Rauschenberg Foundation is releasing it in at least 10 iterative phases over the next 15 to 20 years. The first phase to go live in October 2025 and will mark Rauschenberg’s first five years as an artist, from 1948 to 1953.
“People ask why we don’t publish works as research is completed. The reason is that all CRs reflect the artist they are the subject of, and Rauschenberg worked in series, so it makes sense for us to consider series as a whole, as well as on the individual level,” Foster explained.
Another reason the foundation felt the need to put the catalogue raisonné online was because the artist himself was “super experimental” and loved technology. It was felt that putting it on the web was “very much in his spirit.”
“There’s nothing wrong with print as a technology and there are many beautiful catalogue raisonnés that are print,” Foster said. “But we felt it made a ton of sense. If you want something more flexible, a digital publication seems to better serve the work.”
