PRESS RELEASE

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: GLUTS. THE AMERICAN ARTIST AND THE POETIC SIDE OF OBJECTS.

A year after the death of Robert Rauschenberg, May 12, 2008, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, celebrates the memory of this great artist with the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts. Comprised of approximately forty works, this exhibition, on view May 30 through September 20, 2009, presents a little known body of Rauschenberg’s work in metal drawn from the holdings of the Rauschenberg Estate, with additional loans from institutions and private collections in the United States and abroad. Always one to recycle, Rauschenberg found new uses for what others tossed aside, reinvigorating detritus with a revealing second life. Faced with disparate objects littering his studio, he applied a direct approach to the Gluts (1986–89 and 1991–95), his final series of sculpture. For nearly a decade, Rauschenberg frequented the Gulf Iron and Metal Junkyard outside Fort Myers, Florida, near his home, gathering metal parts from traffic signs, exhaust pipes, radiator grills, metal awnings, and so on, which he incorporated into these poetic, humorous assemblages, where the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Both the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the city of Venice figure importantly in Rauschenberg’s career; one could speak of a special relationship with each. As early as 1961, works by Rauschenberg were included in two exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. In 1963, Lawrence Alloway, then curator of the Guggenheim Museum, organized the exhibition Six Painters and the Object, which included six works by Rauschenberg. In 1992 the Guggenheim Museum SoHo presented Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s, curated by Walter Hopps for the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas. In 1997–99 the Guggenheim Museum, led by Thomas Krens, organized what is surely the most important retrospective of Rauschenberg’s career, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective, in three venues in New York. The retrospective was curated by Hopps and by Susan Davidson (co-curator of this exhibition), and travelled to Houston, Cologne, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain. The catalogue for Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective has assumed the status of a canonical text. On that occasion, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao jointly acquired Rauschenberg’s monumental early work Barge (1962–63), the largest of his silkscreened paintings.

In 1964 Rauschenberg was awarded the Grand Prix for Painting at the 32nd Venice Biennale—an event that established his reputation internationally. It also brought into sharp focus the rivalry between New York and Paris for leadership in the visual arts. By winning the Grand Prix at the age of 38, Rauschenberg interrupted the post-war sequence of prizes awarded to elderly European masters of the pre-war. Alan Solomon, the US Pavilion commissioner, brought to Venice iconic Combines, such as Factum I and II (both 1957), Bed (1958), Canyon (1959), Winter Pool (1959), and Third Time Painting (1961). In 1975 Rauschenberg returned to Venice for a month-long show in Cà Pesaro, the city’s modern art museum, including the Cardboards (1971), Early Egyptians (1973–74), Hoarfrosts (1974–75), and Jammers (1975–76). In 1996 he was invited to exhibit three bodies of work on the Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, including a collaboration with Darryl Pottorf (Quattro Mani, 1996). Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts, thirteen years on, is therefore the artist’s fourth show in this city, and the first posthumous homage.

Of the Gluts series, Susan Davidson, Senior Curator for Collections & Exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum New York, relates that Rauschenberg’s artistic attention in the 1980s turned toward an exploration of the visual properties of metal. Whether assembling found metal objects or experimenting with his own photographic images screen-printed onto aluminum, stainless steel, bronze, brass, or copper, Rauschenberg sought to capture the reflective, textural, sculptural, and thematic possibilities of the material. Rauschenberg’s first body of work in this new material was the Gluts. The series was inspired by a visit to Houston on the occasion of Robert Rauschenberg, Work from Four Series: A Sesquicentennial Exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum. In the mid 1980s, the Texas economy was in the throes of a recession due to a glut (or surplus of supply) in the oil market. Rauschenberg took note of the economic devastation of the

region as he collected gas-station signs and deteriorated automotive and industrial parts littering the landscape. Upon his return to his Captiva, Florida, studio, he transformed the scrap-metal detritus into wall reliefs and freestanding sculptures that recalled his earlier Combines. Asked to comment on the meaning of the Gluts, Rauschenberg offered: “It’s a time of glut. Greed is rampant. I’m just exposing it, trying to wake people up. I simply want to present people with their ruins […] I think of the Gluts as souvenirs without nostalgia. What they are really meant to do is give people an experience of looking at everything in terms of what its many possibilities might be.” Rauschenberg chose these objects not only for their everydayness but also for their formal properties. Individually and collectively, materials such as these are the very foundation of his artistic vocabulary. His empathy for such detritus was visceral. “Well, I have sympathy for abandoned objects, so I always try to rescue them as much as I can.”

The exhibition is curated by Susan Davidson and by David White, curator for Robert Rauschenberg. A fully illustrated catalogue, published by Guggenheim Publications, in English and Italian, includes an assessment of Rauschenberg’s work as a sculptor in relation to the artist’s long engagement with performance by noted author and painter Mimi Thompson. Additional texts include an introduction by Susan Davidson that examines the stylistic development of the Gluts, an excerpt of choreographer Trisha Brown’s accounting of Rauschenberg’s save-the-day spirit, when her dance set was lost in Italy and his stand-in décor later evolved into some of the Neapolitan Gluts on exhibit, and an illustrated Exhibition History.

The exhibition benefits from the support of the Regione del Veneto and of Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim. Additional support has been received from Art Forum Würth Capena, Aperol, Hangar Design Group. Radio Italia and Corriere della Sera are media partners for the exhibition.

The programs of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are made possible thanks to the support of the Advisory Board of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and:

e-mail: info@guggenheim-venice.it; website http://www.guggenheim-venice.it opening times: 10.00-18.00; closet Tuesdays admission: euros 12; euros 10 senior (over 65) euro 7 students; 0-10 years free for further information: tel. 041. 2405404/415; press@guggenheim-venice.it

FACT SHEET

EXHIBITION ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: GLUTS

VENUE AND DATES Peggy Guggenheim Collection 30 May – 20 September 2009

OVERVIEW

CONTENT

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: GLUTS will feature a selected group of approximately forty sculptures drawn from the holdings of institutions and private collections in the United States and abroad. While Rauschenberg has been comprehensively investigated in recent international shows, a focused exhibition examining his sculpture has not been organized since 1995.

Rauschenberg’s art was always one of thoughtful inclusion. After breaking boundaries with his celebrated Combines, which fused two dimensional painting with sculpture in the late 1950s, his explorations of technology-based art that made viewers active participants in the 1960s, and his focus on natural-fiber materials of paper, cardboard, and fabric throughout the 1970s, Rauschenberg’s artistic attention in the 1980s turned toward an exploration of the visual properties of metal. Whether assembling found metal objects or experimenting with his own photographic images screenprinted onto aluminum, bronze, brass, or copper, Rauschenberg sought to capture the reflective, textural, sculptural, and thematic possibilities of the material.

Rauschenberg’s first body of work in this new material was the Gluts, sculptural works the artist began in 1986 and continued to work on intermittently until 1995. The series was inspired by a visit to Houston on the occasion of “Robert Rauschenberg, Work from Four Series,” an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in honor of the 150th anniversary of Texas’s independence from Mexico. In the mid 1980s, the Texas economy was in the throes of a recession due to a glut (or surplus of supply) in the oil market that Rauschenberg took note of. Upon his return to his Captiva, Florida studio, he began to collect gas-station signs and deteriorated automotive and industrial parts that transformed the scrap-metal detritus into wall reliefs and freestanding sculptures that recalled his earlier Combines.

Asked to comment on the meaning of the Gluts, Rauschenberg offered: “It’s a time of glut. Greed is rampant. I’m just exposing it, trying to wake people up. I simply want to present people with their ruins…I think of the Gluts as souvenirs without nostalgia. What they are really meant to do is give people an experience of looking at everything in terms of what its many possibilities might be.”

In many of the Gluts, it is difficult to discern what the original object or objects might have been. In others, however, the metamorphosis from junkyard relic to poetic art object resulted in a work that is less abstract;

the decrepit objects retain something of their original identity, though the significance of the assemblage as a whole is not made explicit.

ORGANIZATION The exhibition is organized by Susan Davidson, the Guggenheim’s Senior Curator for Collections & Exhibitions, and David White, Rauschenberg’s Curator

PUBLICATION ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: GLUTS will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue that includes a reassessment of Rauschenberg’s work as a sculptor in relation to the artist’s long engagement with performance by noted author and painter Mimi Thompson. Additional texts include an introduction by Susan Davidson that examines the stylistic development of the Gluts, an except of chorographer Trisha Brown’s accounting of Rauschenberg’s save-the-day spirit, when her dance set was lost in Italy and his stand-in décor later evolved into some of the Neopolitan Gluts on exhibit, and an illustrated Exhibition History

ENTRANCE TICKET TO THE COLLECTION

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Entrance tickets allow the public to visit the permanent collection, the Gianni Mattioli Collection, the Nasher Sculpture Garden, the exhibition. Free guided visits of the temporary exhibitions, daily at 3:30pm. Reservation is not requested.

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T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Glut Data, 1986Riveted metal108 x 231.1 x 45.7 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Regilar Diary Glut, 1986Riveted metal215.9 x 294.6 x 61 cmCourtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

Le Coon Glut, 1986Assembled metal161.3 x 200.7 x 17.8 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

West-Ho Glut, 1986Assembled metal208.3 x 162.6 x 26.7 cmCollection of Terrae Motus,Palazzo Reale, Caserta, Italy

Snow Crab Crystal Glut, 1987Assembled metal and plastic153.7 x 293.4 x 39.4 cmPrivate collection, courtesy Mrs. Jamileh Weber

Sunset Glut, 1987Assembled metal and plastic154.3 x 210.8 x 72.1 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG: GLUTSMay 30 - September 20, 2009

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni701 Dorsoduro

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T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Easter Deutschland Glut, 1987Assembled metal with electric light137.2 x 322.6 x 42.5 cmPrivate collection, Switzerland

Albino Spring Glut (Neapolitan), 1987Assembled metal201.9 x 175.9 x 39.4 cmCollection of Ernesto Esposito, Naples, Italy

Blind Rosso Porpora Glut (Neapolitan), 1987Assembled metal with rope130.2 x 193 x 38.1 cmThe Darryl Pottorf Trust

Greek Toy Glut (Neapolitan), 1987Assembled metal207 x 254 x 39.4 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Tabasco Glut (Neapolitan), 1987Assembled metal65.1 x 45.1 x 31.1 cmPrivate collection

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30123 Venezia, ItalyTelephone 041 2405 411

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T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Greenhouse Glut (Neapolitan), 1987Assembled metal165.1 x 194.3 x 54.6 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Samurai Early Winter Glut, 1987Riveted metal78.7 x 88.9 x 29.2 cmPrivate collection

Stop Side Early Winter Glut, 1987Assembled metal109.9 x 116.8 x 86.4 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Finn Early Winter Glut, 1987Assembled metal118.7 x 174 x 29.2 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Poached Summer Glut, 1987Riveted metal56.5 x 57.2 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, Switzerland

Wedding Summer Glut, 1987Assembled metal157.5 x 127 x 34.3 cmPrivate collection

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30123 Venezia, ItalyTelephone 041 2405 411

Telefax 041 5206885

T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Elope Summer Glut, 1987Riveted metal35.6 x 102.9 x 14 cmPrivate collection, Switzerland

Blood Orange Summer Glut, 1987Assembled metal and rubber203.2 x 124.5 x 33 cmIVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, SpainGift of the artist

Summer Glut Fence, 1987Assembled metal114.3 x 219.7 x 27.9 cmPrivate collection, Montecarlo

Nasturtium Summer Glut, 1988Assembled metal with electric light73.7 x 213.4 x 30.5 cmCollection of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York

Mercury Zero Summer Glut, 1987Assembled metal27 x 44.5 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection

Gooey Duck Late Summer Glut, 1987Assembled metal with rope231.1 x 71.1 x 55.9 cmPrivate collection

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni701 Dorsoduro

30123 Venezia, ItalyTelephone 041 2405 411

Telefax 041 5206885

T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Cathedral Late Summer Glut, 1987Assembled metal127 x 292.1 x 55.9 cmPrivate collection

Brake Furl Late Summer Glut, 1987Riveted metal134.6 x 152.4 x 38.1 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Snow Gate Winter Glut, 1987Assembled metal61 x 331.5 x 40.6 cmPrivate collection

Gold Strike Glut, 1987Riveted metal125.7 x 160 x 35.6 cmCollection of Robert M. Rubin and Stéphane Samuel

Polar Glut, 1987Riveted metal194.3 x 91.4 x 10.2 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Summer Tisket Glut, 1987Assembled metal and plastic125.7 x 293.4 x 67.3 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Intersection Glut, 1987Assembled metal with sound109.2 x 153.7 x 40.6 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni701 Dorsoduro

30123 Venezia, ItalyTelephone 041 2405 411

Telefax 041 5206885

T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Appalachian Double Latch Spring Glut, 1989Assembled metal162.9 x 84.1 x 28.3 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Getone Spring 88 Glut, 1988Riveted metal71.1 x 127 x 24.1 cmCollection of Alberto del Genio, Naples, Italy

Curly Que Summer Glut, 1988Assembled metal91.4 x 71.1 x 18.4 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Primary Mobiloid Glut, 1988Assembled metal and rubber111.8 x 170.2 x 68.6 cmPrivate collection

Measure for Measure Glut (Zurich), 1988Assembled metal188 x 33 x 7 cmPrivate collection

Palazzo Venier dei Leoni701 Dorsoduro

30123 Venezia, ItalyTelephone 041 2405 411

Telefax 041 5206885

T H E S O L O M O N R . G U G G E N H E I M F O U N D A T I O N

Filter Fish Glut (Zurich), 1988Assembled metal57.2 x 47 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection

Turquoise Blazer Spring Glut, 1989Assembled metal150.2 x 161 x 8.3 cmPrivate collection

Society Color Wheel Glut, 1989Assembled metal120 x 192 x 22 cmPrivate collection, Switzerland

Dirty Ghost Glut, 1992Assembled metal149.9 x 83.8 x 34 cmEstate of Robert Rauschenberg

Nile Throne Glut, 1992Assembled metal on wheels100.3 x 68.6 x 129.5 cmPrivate collection

BIOGRAPHY

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HIS ART A native of Port Arthur Texas, Robert Rauschenberg was born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg on October 22, 1925. After briefly attending the University of Texas at Austin to study pharmacology, and serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1947. In early 1948, he traveled to Paris to study at the Académie Julien where he met fellow artist Susan Weil; they later married and had a son, Christopher. In the autumn the couple returned to the United States to study under Bauhaus master Josef Albers at Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina. Late in 1949, Rauschenberg moved to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League. Rauschenberg returned to Black Mountain College in 1951 and again in 1952 where he formed friendships with Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and David Tudor, and participated in Cage’s Theater Piece #1 (1952), which is now acknowledged as the first Happening. Since the early 1950s, Rauschenberg’s sustained involvement in theater and dance has resulted in costume and set designs for Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Viola Farber, Steve Paxton, and Trisha Brown, as well as for his own productions, such as Pelican (1963).

Rauschenberg’s first solo exhibition was held at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York in spring 1951 where he showed paintings that incorporated found elements such as maps and mirrors. His next body of work, the uninflected White Paintings (1951) became screens for light and shadow as they responded to the conditions around them. From the autumn of 1952 to the spring of 1953, Rauschenberg traveled to Europe and North Africa with Cy Twombly whom he had met at the Art Students League. During his travels, Rauschenberg worked on a series of small collages, hanging assemblages, and small boxes filled with found objects which were exhibited in Rome and Florence. Upon his return to New York in 1953, he began work on the Red Paintings to which he added newspaper and patterned fabric. It was towards the end of this year that Rauschenberg first met Jasper Johns. By the summer of 1954, Rauschenberg had introduced found objects such as stuffed animals, wheels, chairs, and clocks on to the surface of the Red Paintings, thus creating his first Combines; these unconvential works pushed the boundaries of what an artwork could be. This interplay of disperate materials remained central to Rauschenberg’s work, whose career has been defined by a sense of experiment and play.

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the found image had became paramount in Rauschenberg’s visual vocabulary. Reproductions from newspapers and magazines were incorporated into his drawings, prints, and paintings as he perfected techniques of solvent-transfer, lithography, and silkscreening. The transfer drawings, produced simultaneously with the later Combines, brought the element of collage onto a two-dimensional plane; found images were now contiguous with the picture surface and were mixed with freely drawn and painted areas. This admixture of figuration and abstraction remained a hallmark of Rauschenberg’s style.

The silkscreened painting series, made between 1962 and 1964, used a commercial means of reproduction and emphasized media subjects, identifying Rauschenberg with Pop art. The photomechanically produced screens allowed him to transcribe his own photographs as well as images taken from the popular press on a large scale. Rauschenberg’s experiments with the use of electronics in his art led to the establishment in 1966 of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) with Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer Billy Klüver, intended to promote cooperation between artists and engineers. Rauschenberg’s five-part construction, Oracle (1960–65) and the mirrored wall Soundings (1968), whose lights were activated by the sounds viewers made were realized from this collaboration. Rauschenberg’s lifelong quest for new materials, new technologies, and new ideas led him to continuously explore new and often untraditional avenues.

With his move in 1970 from New York to Captiva, an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida, Rauschenberg cleared his palette. Retreating from urban imagery, he now favored an abstract idiom and the use of natural fibers, such as fabric and paper. The Cardboards (1971) and Venetians (1972–73) revealed his fascination with the inherent color, texture, and history of found materials. The beautiful and disparate effects of fabrics, ranging from cotton to satin, were explored in the Hoarfrosts (1974–75) and Jammers (1975–76) while his Spreads (1975–82) and Scales (1977–81) incorporate transferred and screened images and assemblage, sometimes in room-scale installations.

In 1984, The Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI) was established. An evolving exhibition of over 200 works, the project was a tangible expression of Rauschenberg’s belief in the power of art and artistic collaboration to bring about social change on an international level and the culmination of his long-term commitment to human rights. The eight-year tour explored diverse cultures and local art-making practices in Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, China, Tibet, Japan, Cuba, Russia, Germany, Malaysia, and a final exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Rauschenberg’s lifelong commitment to collaboration, whether with performers, printmakers, engineers, writers, artists, and artisans from around the world was a manifestation of his expansive artistic philosophy.

Having first painted and screened on copper for ROCI Chile in 1985, over the next decade, Rauschenberg explored the use of metal as a support for paint, tarnishes, enamel, and screenprinted images in several subsequent series. Imagery and found objects often referred to Rauschenberg’s travels, while reflective metallic surfaces mirrored the immediate surroundings of the works. The metal paintings have a wide range of effects, from the brilliantly colored enamels of the Urban Bourbons (1988–95) to the dark monochrome of the Night Shades (1991). The Gluts, begun in 1986, are made from scrap-metal objects, such as gas station signs and automobile parts that often mask their original identities when transformed into wall and freestanding sculptures.

Beginning in 1992, Rauschenberg used an Iris printer to make digital color prints of his photographs, resulting in the high-resolution images and luminous hues of the large-scale works, Anagrams (1995–2000), Short Stories (2000–2003), Scenarios (2002–2006), and Runts (2007–2008). Utilizing pigment transfer technique, these series incorporated his early vision with the latest advances in technology.

The theme of inclusion, both in his choice of materials and in the relationship between the art and the viewer, has always permeated Rauschenberg’s art. Whatever media he chose, whether paint on canvas, metal, Plexiglas, paper, fresco, cardboard or fabric, Rauschenberg was always a forerunner in almost every aspect of contemporary art. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HIS PHILANTHROPY AND ACHIEVEMENTS

In 1970, Rauschenberg founded Change, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides emergency funds for artists. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, established in 1990, is a non-profit entity devoted to projects that increase public awareness about subjects of vital interest to the artist, including medical research, education, the environment, the homeless, world hunger, and the arts.

Since 1951, Rauschenberg’s work has been exhibited extensively. His major museum exhibitions include those organized by: The Jewish Museum, New York (1963); Whitechapel Gallery, London (1964); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1965); ; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1968); Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1974); National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. (1976, touring to 1977); Staatliche Kunsthalle, Berlin (1980, touring to 1981); Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France (1984); Fundación Juan March, Madrid and Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (1985); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1986); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1990); The Menil Collection, Houston

(1991, touring to 1993); Aktionsforum Praterinsel, Munich (1997); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1997, touring to 1999); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2000); The Baltimore Museum of Art (2000-2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2002); Musee Maillol, Paris (2002); Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy (2004); Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Valencia, Spain (2005); Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de la Ville de Nice (2005, touring to 2006); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2006, touring to 2008); The Menil Collection, Houston (2007); Museu Serralves Museu de Arte Contemporanea, Porto, Portugal (2007, touring to 2009). His artwork is represented in nearly every major museum collection in the world.

Rauschenberg many awards and honors include: Grand Prize, 32nd Venice Biennale (1964); Creative Arts Award, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts (1978); Grand Prix d’Honneur, International Exhibition of Graphic Art, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia (1979); Gold Medal for Graphics, Oslo (1979); Skowhegan Medal for Painting, Skowhegan College, Maine (1982); Grammy Award for best album design for pop group Talking Heads (1984); Jerusalem Prize for Arts and Letters, Friends of Bezalel Academy of Jerusalem, Philadelphia Chapter (1984); Golden Plate Award, 25th Anniversary Salute to Excellence, American Academy of Achievement (1986); International Center of Photography Art Award (1987); The Algur H. Meadows Award of Excellence in the Arts, Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas (1989); Federal Design Achievement Award (1992); National Medal of Arts Award presented by the U.S. President and First Lady (1993); Second Hiroshima Art Prize, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art (1993); Leonardo Da Vinci World Award of Arts, World Cultural Council, Mexico City (1995); Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture, International Sculpture Center, Washington, D.C. (1996); First Prize in Contemporary Art Awards, ARCO and Fundación Argentaria, Madrid (1997); The Eighth Wexner Prize, Wexner Center, Ohio State University (2000); The Harbourfront Centre World Leaders Prize, Toronto, Ontario (2001); Medal Award, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2002); Julio Gonzalez Award, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Valencia (2005); First place, U.S. Art Critics Association Best Monographic Museum Show Nationally (2005-2006) for Robert Rauschenberg: Combines.

Rauschenberg was elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, Boston (1978); Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm (1980); Officer in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Ministry of Culture and Communication, France (1981); appointed Fellow, Rhode Island School of Design (1981); presented Band of Honour from the Order of Andres Bello by the government of Venezuela (1985); elected Honorary Royal Academician, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2000); and received honorary doctoral degrees from Grinnell College, Iowa (1967), University of South Florida in Tampa (1976), and New York University (1984). Robert Rauschenberg lived and worked on Captiva Island, Florida from 1970 until his death on May 12, 2008.