MoMa Robert Rauschenberg:Thirty-Four Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno 但丁地獄篇系列作品

“Rauschenberg could be downbeat and beat-up, he could be slick and sharp and glossy, or move from the glutinous red paintings to the sheer, glamorous surfaces of the silkscreen paintings, with their blown up images of Jack Kennedy, old masters and astronauts. “What was great about the 50s,” remarked American composer Morton Feldman, “is that for one brief moment – maybe say six weeks – nobody understood art.” He adumbrated the flavour of his times.” — The Guardian

 

Between 1958 and 1960, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) produced a series of 34 drawings, one for each Canto or section of Dante’s poem The Inferno (1308–1321). Together, they are a virtual encyclopedia of modern­day imagery made by transferring photographic reproductions from magazines or newspapers onto the drawing surface. “I think a picture is more like the real world when it’s made out of the real world,” Rauschenberg said. With additional imagery in pencil, crayon, pastel, and collage, the drawings reflect Rauschenberg’s desire to infiltrate his art with the scenes and sounds of the surrounding world, a radical departure from the more transcendent ambitions of Abstract Expressionism.

 

This project would occupy Rauschenberg for over two years in a conversation with Dante across the centuries. Dante and the ancient Roman poet Virgil, who serves as Dante’s guide and companion in the underworld, take a range of contemporary forms—athletes, astronauts, the politicians Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy—as they descend into the depths of a modern-day hell. "The role of the artist is to see what is in the world today," Rauschenberg later reflected. In 1963, this series was among the first works by Rauschenberg to be acquired by The Museum of Modern Art and remains a treasured icon in the collection.

Published by MoMA in conjunction with the first major retrospective on Rauschenberg’s career since the artist’s death in 2008 this book presents the complete set of 34 drawings with an introduction by curator Leah Dickerman and newly commissioned poetry from Kevin Young and Robin Coste Lewis each reflecting on a selection of drawings and their corresponding Cantos. 

 

Features

• Edition : -
• Binding : paperback
• ISBN : 9781633450295
• Publication Date : 2017/6/27

 

Materials & Care

• Imported