Robert Rauschenberg ROCI Robert Rauschenberg ROCI

Robert Rauschenberg ROCI

24 April—3 August 2024
Ely House, London

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On 13 December 1984, Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) stood before the United Nations to announce his intentions for the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), an ambitious and unprecedented project conceived for 'making and exchanging art and facts around the world.' Between 1984 and 1991, he travelled the globe with a large-scale touring exhibition with this purpose of sparking dialogue and achieving mutual cross-cultural understanding through artistic expression.

Presenting works directly from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, this is the first gallery survey dedicated to ROCI since the conclusion of the project. Held in London in a moment of deep global uncertainty, the exhibition revisits the project to consider the power of international collaboration and artistic exchange in the 21st century. 

Watch Julia Blaut, Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, introduce the exhibition

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Watch Julia Blaut, Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, introduce the exhibition
 Pronounced 'Rocky' after the artist's pet turtle, the ROCI project ultimately spanned 11 countries, with a particular focus on places where freedom of artistic expression had been restricted: Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, China, Tibet, Japan, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Germany (Berlin) and Malaysia, concluding with an exhibition in the United States at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Working with a small team, Rauschenberg undertook research trips to participating countries, where he visited sites of interest and met with local artists, artisans and prominent cultural figures. He then returned to his studio in Captiva, Florida, where he created a body of work inspired by his observations of the material and social fabric of the place. These new works were exhibited in the host country alongside a touring retrospective of the artist's work and a selection of ROCI pieces from previous countries, facilitating cross-cultural dialogues.


Caryatid Cavalcade I / ROCI CHILE (1985) is one of two monumental canvases created for the ROCI CHILE exhibition held...
Caryatid Cavalcade I / ROCI CHILE (1985) is one of two monumental canvases created for the ROCI CHILE exhibition held...

Caryatid Cavalcade I / ROCI CHILE (1985) is one of two monumental canvases created for the ROCI CHILE exhibition held at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago in 1985. The images of the titular pillars, shaped like draped female forms, are taken from Rauschenberg’s own photograph of the interior of the museum and establish a meta-dialogue between the artwork and the location in which it was first presented.

Compositionally, the remaining vibrantly coloured imagery of Chilean life  also captured through the artist’s lens  is arranged in loose columns to echo the sculptural form of the caryatids.



Caryatid Cavalcade I / ROCI CHILE, 1985

Silkscreen ink, acrylic and graphite on canvas

352.2 x 655.6 cm (138.66 x 258.11 in)

Robert Rauschenberg at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, the venue of the ROCI CHILE exhibition, c. 1985. Photo: Terry Van Brunt. Courtesy of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York
Chile, 1984 Gelatin silver print 33 x 48.3 cm (13 x 19 in)
Chile, 1984 Gelatin silver print 33 x 48.3 cm (13 x 19 in)
Chile, 1984 Gelatin silver print 33 x 48.3 cm (13 x 19 in)
In Night Post / ROCI MEXICO (1985) Rauschenberg repurposes discarded cardboard boxes used to transport Mexican alcohol. Arranged in a...

In Night Post / ROCI MEXICO (1985) Rauschenberg repurposes discarded cardboard boxes used to transport Mexican alcohol. Arranged in a quasi-modernist abstract assemblage, the rectangular forms of the deconstructed boxes are echoed by painted and fabric additions, as well as a cardboard piece that floats in the upper left-hand corner.

Rauschenberg had previously explored the potential of cardboard in series from the 1970s, following his relocation from New York City to the quiet island of Captiva in Florida. No longer able to rely on the availability of urban detritus for his artmaking, he asked, ‘what material, no matter where I was in the world, would be available?’ His answer: ‘Cardboard boxes! [...] I still haven’t been any place where there weren’t cardboard boxes… even up the Amazon.’

 

Night Post / ROCI MEXICO, 1985

Acrylic, fabric and tape on cardboard

214 x 397 x 10 cm (84.25 x 156.3 x 3.94 in)


I couldn't see clearly as an artist until I understood that it wasn't the similarities that were important, it wasn't the similarities that pulled things together, but it was the differences that made things interesting.

— Robert Rauschenberg, 1986

Created for the third ROCI exhibition, held in September 1985 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas in Venezuela,...

Created for the third ROCI exhibition, held in September 1985 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas in Venezuela, Rudy's House / ROCI VENEZUELA (1985) depicts an inhospitable landscape of wrought iron chairs, wire fences and metal gates. At the centre of the grey-and-brown composition, the image of a boxer dog is trapped within a three-dimensional chair element, affixed to the surface of the painting.

Named Rudy, the boxer was bred as a fighter dog and had been found by the artist on the city streets, abandoned with his jaw crushed. 'A couple of hippies nursed him back to life,' Rauschenberg recalled. 'He is one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met - and forced to fight!' A staunch pacifist, the artist abhorred violence. Finding parallels in the treatment of Rudy, he said, 'It doesn't take armies to give you an appetite against violence.'

Rudy's House / ROCI VENEZUELA, 1985

Silkscreen ink, acrylic, Plexiglas, mirror and metal on plywood

250.8 x 125.9 x 54 cm (98.74 x 49.57 x 21.26 in)

Rauschenberg’s research for ROCI VENEZUELA took him to the Amazonas territory, where he met indigenous tribes that made body paint...

Rauschenberg’s research for ROCI VENEZUELA took him to the Amazonas territory, where he met indigenous tribes that made body paint with a pigment derived from the fruit of the annatto tree. He used this red-brown hue in many works in the series, including Onoto Snare / ROCI VENEZUELA (1985) – onoto being the Venezuelan name for the English annatto.


Onoto Snare / ROCI VENEZUELA, 1985

Silkscreen ink, acrylic and graphite on canvas with object

177.2 x 199.1 cm (69.75 x 78.38 in)


The ROCI TIBET series is the only body of work in the ROCI project composed entirely of sculptures. Rauschenberg found it challenging to create works for Tibet because, in his own words, Tibetans 'have that total respect for all things… There is no hierarchy in materials… I thought they were so close to my overall sensibility that I think it was the most difficult show I had to make.' The sculptures were assembled from found objects primarily gathered by the artist in Florida junkyards and were presented at the Tibet Revolutionary Hall, Lhasa in December 1985.

Red Whale / ROCI TIBET, 1985 Lead and enamelled steel, 23 kg 89.7 x 84 x 45 cm (35.31 x...
Magnetic Script / ROCI TIBET, 1985 Construction with chairs and typewriter 110.5 x 77.8 x 58.6 cm (43.5 x 30.63...
For ROCI CUBA, Rauschenberg created a series of metal paintings on aluminium and steel supports. The series employs vivid primary...
For ROCI CUBA, Rauschenberg created a series of metal paintings on aluminium and steel supports. The series employs vivid primary colours to evoke the pre-1959 American cars commonly found in Havana, where the ROCI exhibition was held in 1988. In contrast, Cuban Slate (Pizarron Cubano) (1988) is one of only three works in the ROCI CUBA series executed on a predominantly black support, which creates a high-contrast, dark-and-light palette. Its title is a play on the grey tones of the painting, which, combined with the nature of the imagery, give the work an architectural feel.  
 

Red Sunday (Domingo Rojo) / ROCI CUBA, 1988

Silkscreen ink and enamel on galvanised steel

215.1 x 124.2 cm (84.69 x 48.9 in)

Cuban Slate (Pizarron Cubano) / ROCI CUBA, 1988 Silkscreen ink and enamel on galvanised steel 124 x 215.2 cm (48.82...
Premonition (Ante de Creer) / ROCI CUBA, 1988 Silkscreen ink and enamel on galvanised steel 93.5 x 215 cm (36.81...
Level Revel / ROCI USA (Wax Fire Works) (1990) was created for the final ROCI exhibition, held at the National...
Level Revel / ROCI USA (Wax Fire Works) (1990) was created for the final ROCI exhibition, held at the National...

Level Revel / ROCI USA (Wax Fire Works) (1990) was created for the final ROCI exhibition, held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. in 1991. The Wax Fire Works were made using a newly developed technique to silkscreen with a form of encaustic, which Rauschenberg called ‘fire wax’. The hot wax, containing pigment, was painted or screenprinted onto metal grounds, reproducing photographs he had taken in Canada and the United States. They are coloured in a diverse, vibrant palette to convey a sense of exuberance or, as the title suggests, revelry.

 

Level Revel / ROCI USA (Wax Fire Works), 1990

Silkscreen ink and fire wax on mirrored aluminum

246 x 368 cm (96.85 x 144.88 in)

Donald Saff, Robert Rauschenberg and Tom Pruitt working on a ROCI USA painting on metal, October 1990. Photo: George Holzer. Courtesy of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York.

Held at the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow in February 1989, the ROCI USSR exhibition was the first solo presentation of a...
Held at the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow in February 1989, the ROCI USSR exhibition was the first solo presentation of a Western post-war artist in the Soviet Union and attracted more than 145,000 visitors. On view were Rauschenberg’s editioned photogravures on paper, the Soviet / American Arrays (1988–91), which used a photo-mechanical process to create detailed reproductions of his photographs taken in both the USSR and the U.S. Notably, this is the only body of work in the ROCI series to juxtapose images from two countries as a central conceptual tenet, reflecting the complex relationship that existed between the opposing political powers in the context of the Cold War.


Soviet / American Array VII
, 198891

Photogravure

199.4 x 129.9 cm (78.5 x 51.14 in)

Another instance of an editioned work made for ROCI is found in Bamhue / ROCI JAPAN (1987). As evidenced by...

Another instance of an editioned work made for ROCI is found in Bamhue / ROCI JAPAN (1987). As evidenced by the wordplay of the title, Rauschenberg fused rainbow-hued neon light  possibly in reference to the neon sculptures of American minimalist Dan Flavin  with bamboo, bringing Western contemporary art into dialogue with the traditional Japanese material.
 

Bamhue / ROCI JAPAN, 1987

Bamboo with neon, electrical timer and metal fixtures

228.6 x 10.2 x 27.3 cm (90 x 4.02 x 10.75 in)


I see the legacy of ROCI, in part, being the ability to look at other cultures, look at other countries, look at other people, and find your common humanity, and that's what I would hope that people take away from viewing the works and the spirit of the project. 

— Julia Blaut, Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation


 

Publication

Robert Rauschenberg ROCI

Robert Rauschenberg

ROCI
2024

About the artist

Over the course of his 60-year career, Robert Rauschenberg’s work was inspired by wide-ranging experiences, lifelong collaborations and a spirit...
Over the course of his 60-year career, Robert Rauschenberg’s work was inspired by wide-ranging experiences, lifelong collaborations and a spirit of experimentation. Although he resisted identification with any specific movement, he has been identified as a forerunner of practically every post-war artistic development since Abstract Expressionism. He was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1964, received numerous retrospectives during his lifetime – notably at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1997) – and, more recently, at Tate Modern, London and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016–17). His work is held in important institutional collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, among others.


 
 
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