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Lot Essay
An imposing rectangle of crushed and distorted metal coated in vibrant red, Pimiento Late Summer Glut marks a striking diagonal in space—a slashed mark placed in front of a salvaged white square fragment, fringed by its oxidized edges. The “pimento” of the title, possibly the artist’s verbal play on his use of the vivid color, suggests the sort of wry humor that Robert Rauschenberg was well known for bringing to his work throughout his career. The present sculpture is a wall-mounted relief from his Gluts series, a continuation of the found object and industrial aesthetic contained in the artist’s iconic Combine assemblages which he executed in the 1950s.
In contrast with some of the other works from the same series, it’s difficult to discern the original identity of the forms that make up Pimento Late Summer Glut, thus the work presents itself not as a field of symbols to be interpreted, but instead as a play of interlocking forms floating in space, as an entirely abstract piece. It’s the placement of forms that is everything here: the interlocking planes, the alignment of edges, the diagonals, curves, and circles. Although metallic, the materials often suggest softer forms, for example the rumpled character of crumpled cardboard, or, elsewhere, the sharp-edged folds of precisely creased paper. The colors weren’t applied by the artist, but rather are found colors, as he combined and recombined the individual elements until he achieved the look he sought.
The Gluts series was inspired by a visit that the artist made to Houston, Texas in the mid-1980s on the occasion of the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Work from Four Series at the Contemporary Arts Museum. When he returned to his studio on Captiva Island, Florida, he visited a local junkyard and gathered raw material (road signs, car parts, sheet metal fragments, painted metal signage). Rauschenberg’s studio assistant Lawrence Voytek has recalled one trip of the artist’s to the scrapyard: “He started shuffling…He would find things…and then seek for more pieces of the puzzle…Many times he would put things together and they just fit so perfectly” (L. Voytek, quoted in R. Rauschenberg, et al., Robert Rauschenberg, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016, p. 327).
The works in the series were accomplished in two segments, 1986 through 1989, and 1991 through 1994. The earlier works produced in the 1980s, including the present example, make reference to the depressed economy around Houston, the result of a recession caused by an excess supply (or glut) in the oil market. This poignant reading adds a distinctly political quality to Rauschenberg’s work from this period, something that made him stand apart from his contemporaries, “Few artists of Rauschenberg’s stature were addressing this social context in their work [at this time]…[The] Gluts, with their gnarled steel bodies, rusted signage, and dilapidated machine-painted lettering, read as the wreckage of the postwar technological age (Ibid.).
In contrast with some of the other works from the same series, it’s difficult to discern the original identity of the forms that make up Pimento Late Summer Glut, thus the work presents itself not as a field of symbols to be interpreted, but instead as a play of interlocking forms floating in space, as an entirely abstract piece. It’s the placement of forms that is everything here: the interlocking planes, the alignment of edges, the diagonals, curves, and circles. Although metallic, the materials often suggest softer forms, for example the rumpled character of crumpled cardboard, or, elsewhere, the sharp-edged folds of precisely creased paper. The colors weren’t applied by the artist, but rather are found colors, as he combined and recombined the individual elements until he achieved the look he sought.
The Gluts series was inspired by a visit that the artist made to Houston, Texas in the mid-1980s on the occasion of the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Work from Four Series at the Contemporary Arts Museum. When he returned to his studio on Captiva Island, Florida, he visited a local junkyard and gathered raw material (road signs, car parts, sheet metal fragments, painted metal signage). Rauschenberg’s studio assistant Lawrence Voytek has recalled one trip of the artist’s to the scrapyard: “He started shuffling…He would find things…and then seek for more pieces of the puzzle…Many times he would put things together and they just fit so perfectly” (L. Voytek, quoted in R. Rauschenberg, et al., Robert Rauschenberg, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016, p. 327).
The works in the series were accomplished in two segments, 1986 through 1989, and 1991 through 1994. The earlier works produced in the 1980s, including the present example, make reference to the depressed economy around Houston, the result of a recession caused by an excess supply (or glut) in the oil market. This poignant reading adds a distinctly political quality to Rauschenberg’s work from this period, something that made him stand apart from his contemporaries, “Few artists of Rauschenberg’s stature were addressing this social context in their work [at this time]…[The] Gluts, with their gnarled steel bodies, rusted signage, and dilapidated machine-painted lettering, read as the wreckage of the postwar technological age (Ibid.).