Why 2025 Is Going to Be the Year of Robert Rauschenberg Centennial celebrations planned throughout 2025 and 2026
By Elisa Carollo
Building on Duchamp’s groundbreaking approach of transforming everyday objects through painting and formalist elements, the artist Robert Rauschenberg expanded the expressive possibilities of traditional art and pop culture. His experimental multimedia works serve as timeless testaments to the relationship between humans and material culture, all while threading them into the continuum of art history. Faced with the need to describe his innovative method of blending mundane materials and traditional techniques, Rauschenberg coined the term “Combines.” These pieces, which merge painting and sculpture into an entirely new category, seamlessly integrate the everyday with artistic creation, playfully redefining meaning and challenging conventional aesthetics. One of his most provocative works, Monogram (1955-59), exemplifies this: a stuffed Angora goat, bought for $15 at a secondhand office furniture store on Seventh Avenue, is fused with a tire and a painting assemblage. The bizarre combination defied traditional notions of beauty and taste, creating an iconic image that presciently reflects the paradoxical accumulation of consumerist excess, often destined to become formless waste.
As the 100th anniversary of Rauschenberg’s birth approaches, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has announced an ambitious Centennial celebration set to spotlight the artist’s legacy through 2025 and into 2026. Seven major institutional presentations across continents are already planned, alongside an art fair with a curatorial theme dedicated to Rauschenberg and a series of events activating the Foundation’s New York headquarters and archive. These initiatives aim to bring curators, scholars and enthusiasts into dialogue with Rauschenberg’s pioneering practice and philosophy. Museum exhibitions will range from comprehensive surveys of his oeuvre to more focused explorations of specific elements of his multifaceted, ever-evolving body of work, which spans decades of artistic innovation.
“Rauschenberg’s centennial is a once-in-a-century opportunity to celebrate not only the breadth and depth of his artistic legacy but also the enduring power of his ideas to inspire,” Courtney J. Martin, executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, told Observer. “This milestone allows us to reengage with his vision through fresh perspectives, reaffirming his role as a catalyst for innovation and a beacon for social progress with expansive plans for international exhibitions, grants, publications,and other initiatives with national and international partners. As we look ahead, the centennial invites global audiences to honor his contributions and to imagine new possibilities shaped by his creativity and generosity.”
Starting in the city where the Texan-born artist found his footing and fame, the Museum of the City of New York will open its doors in September 2025 to “Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World.” This curated survey will explore how Rauschenberg drew visual material from the “real world,” with a spotlight on his relationship with the city through photography. Divided into three sections—“Early Photographs,” “In + Out City Limits / New York” and “Photography in Painting”—the exhibition will also feature an interactive collage component that invites visitors to engage with Rauschenberg’s distinctive approach to image-making and reinterpret it in a personal way.
