Robert Rauschenberg at Pace MacGill

The great difficulty in writing about the current exhibit at Pace MacGill's 57th Street location, Robert Rauschenberg and Photography, is that Rauschenberg was not primarily a photographer.  Even the term "multimedia artist" is insufficient to describe the complexity of Rauschenberg's vision.  Although often referred to as a precursor of pop art, Rauschenberg's true importance lies in his use of an incredible variety of materials, including found objects, with which to rethink the very nature of artistic expression.  In this, he most closely resembles that great iconoclast Marcel Duchamp whose Fountain first raised the question in 1917.  As the press release states:

"Using his own photographs as well as appropriated material, he [Rauschenberg] screened, transferred, and recycled images, using juxtaposition and obfuscation to create frames within frames, moving with energized fluidity between two and three-dimensional pieces, truly a post-modern artist in his laying bare of seams, interruptions and process."

For Rauschenberg, photography was by no means an end in itself.  It was instead a source of materials that could be used in creating collages and mixed media works much as old newspapers could be so incorporated.  It was by thus deconstructing the photographic process that Rauschenberg found his greatest application for it.  To see an exhibit of Rauschenberg's photographic work hung by itself is therefore somewhat a subversion of the artist's intent.  It sets up an artificial milieu where the photographs become works of art in themselves rather than materials to be used in creating art.

Certainly, as examples of a photographer's oeuvre, the works are not that impressive as they do not demonstrate the skills one would normally associate with fine art photography. Certain works, such as those from the Photem Series, seem no more than amateurish collages of snapshots.  Other pieces, particularly those reproduced as black & white inkjet prints, show a discerning eye but lack the skillful execution that would set them apart as great photographs.  For example, N.Y.C. Street (1951), Captiva Island, Florida (1971) and Vancouver (1980) show a great deal of wit in capturing ironic juxtapositions within the same scene.  But as such they rarely rise above the level of an artistic punch line.  Most curious of all are Portfolio I and Portfolio II, both from 1952.  Printed by the artist on silver gelatin paper in the 1990's, they mock the traditional concept of the photographic portfolio through the lack of any continuity among the images shown.  Though there may be for the artist a connection among these awkward subjects, it is not apparent to the viewer.

The exhibit continues through November 2, 2013.