Robert Rauschenberg’s Asian travels and influences On display at M+ in Hong Kong

By Gavin Yeung

Before the art world went global, there was American artist Robert Rauschenberg. The titan of 20th-century art spent decades looking East. Now, M+ is staging the first major exhibition dedicated to his travels across Asia, showing how formative the continent was for one of art’s experimental greats.

Opening on November 22 and continuing until April 26, 2026, “Robert Rauschenberg and Asia” offers a fresh, multidisciplinary exploration of an artist we thought we knew or may have taken for granted.

Rauschenberg (1925-2008), who was based in New York for much of his life, was one of the leading figures of the pop art movement, with a career that spanned almost six decades. Best known for blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture, Rauschenberg famously used everyday objects, from car tyres and quilts to street signs, in his “Combines” series of works (1954-64), influencing generations of artists.

The M+ show, part of the museum’s Pao-Watari Exhibition Series as well as the global “Rauschenberg 100” series celebrating the centennial of the artist’s birth, gathers more than 40 pieces by Rauschenberg, as well as works by Asian artists who met him. The show charts his journey between 1964 and 1990, focusing on his collaborations with Asian artisans, from paper makers in India to ceramicists in China and Japan.