This month marks the one centesimal anniversary of the start of the influential American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008). To mark the event, greater than half a dozen reveals have been organised around the globe, led by the New York-based Robert Rauschenberg Basis.
Every focuses on a distinct side of the artist’s life and work, from his relationships together with his contemporaries in 5 Mates on the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (3 October-11 January 2026) to his experimentation with totally different supplies in Robert Rauschenberg: Material Works of the Seventies on the Menil Assortment in Houston (till 1 March 2026). To assist us wrap our heads round Rauschenberg’s diverse life and profession, the Menil’s senior curator Michelle White has chosen 5 key books on the artist.
Off the Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg (2005) by Calvin Tomkins
“Based mostly on a collection of interviews carried out for The New Yorker, this biography offers such an pleasant journey via Rauschenberg’s life. An astute artwork historian, Tomkins brings nice perception to the significance of the artwork.”
Fray: Artwork and Textile Politics (2017) by Julia Bryan-Wilson
“Material is an understudied medium within the historical past of Trendy artwork and Bryan-Wilson illuminates its significance within the Seventies. She argues that fabric, via its malleability and softness, is political, and elementary to understanding why so many artists—considering via concepts of gender and areas outdoors of masculine-oriented histories—turned to it.”
The poster for the exhibition 5 Mates: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly
5 Mates: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly (2025), edited by Yilmaz Dziewior, Achim Hochdörfer and Arthur Fink
“This fantastically illustrated catalogue, revealed for one among many exhibitions in honour of Rauschenberg’s centennial, seems on the fertile collaborations and conversations between Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Twombly. Their deep friendship, which yielded unprecedented works of music, dance and visible artwork, exemplifies the spirit of the cross-disciplinary up to date practices of post-war artwork.”
I Don’t Assume About Being Nice: Chosen Writings (2025), edited by Francine Snyder
“Francine Snyder, director of the archives on the Robert Rauschenberg Basis, compiled an interesting group of lesser-known writings by the artist. Humorous and profound, they’re primarily quick musings on his understanding of artwork with a capital ‘A’. The succinct statements, distinguished by the artist’s distinct capitalised handwriting, are additionally reproduced as facsimiles. This intimacy makes you’re feeling like you’ve stumbled throughout a pile of his notebooks.”
Robert Rauschenberg: The Early Nineteen Fifties (1991) by Walter Hopps
“This catalogue accompanied a 1991 exhibition on the Menil Assortment, curated by Walter Hopps. An early champion of the artist, his present and ebook set forth a nonetheless deeply under-recognised group of Rauschenberg’s experimental early work from the Nineteen Fifties, tied to his formative schooling at Black Mountain Faculty in North Carolina.”
• Michelle White, Robert Rauschenberg: Material Works of the Seventies, 204pp, $65 (hb)
