Combine painting
Encyclopedia
A combine painting is an artwork that incorporates various objects into a painted canvas surface, creating a sort of hybrid between painting
and sculpture
. Items attached to paintings might include photographic images, clothing, newspaper clippings, ephemera
or any number of three-dimensional
objects. The term is most closely associated with the artwork of American artist Robert Rauschenberg
(1925–2008) who coined the phrase to describe his own creations. Rauschenberg’s Combines explored the blurry boundaries between art and the everyday world. In addition, his cross-medium creations challenged the doctrine of medium specificity
mentioned by modernist art critic Clement Greenberg
. Frank Stella
created a large body of paintings that recall the combine paintings of Robert Rauschenberg
by juxtaposing a wide variety of surface and material in each work ultimately leading to Stella's sculpture and architecture of the 21st century.
used to design window displays together for upscale retailers such as Tiffany's
and Bonwit Teller
in Manhattan before they became better established as artists. They shared ideas about art as well as career strategies. Paul Schimmel of the Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art
described Rauschenberg's Combine paintings as "some of the most influential, poetic and revolutionary works in the history of American art." But they've also been called "ramshackle hybrids between painting and sculpture, stage prop and three-dimensional scrap-book assemblage" according to Guardian critic Adrian Searle. Searle believed the "different elements of the Combines have been described as having no more relation than the different stories that vie for attention on a newspaper page." Jasper Johns, as well, used similar techniques; in at least one painting, Johns attached a paintbrush right inside his painting.
Examples of Rauschenberg's Combine paintings include Bed (1955), Canyon (1959), and the free-standing Monogram (1955–1959). Rauschenberg's works mostly incorporated two-dimensional materials held together with "splashes and drips of paint" with occasional 3-D objects. Critic John Perreault wrote "The Combines are both painting and sculpture–or, some purists would say, neither." Perreault liked them since they were memorable, photogenic, and "stick in the mind" as well as "surprise and keep on surprising." Rauschenberg added stuffed birds on his 1955 work Satellite, which featured a stuffed pheasant "patrolling its top edge." In another work, he added a ladder. His Combine Broadcast, three radios blaring at once which was a "melange of paint, grids, newspaper clips and fabric snippets." According to one source, his Broadcast had three radios playing simultaneously, which produced a sort of irritating static, so that one of the work's owners, at one point, replaced the "noise" with tapes of actual programs when guests visited. Rauschenberg's The Bed had a pillow attached to a patchwork quilt with paint splashed over it. The idea was to promote immediacy.
The prevailing theme of Rauschenberg's "combine" paintings is "nonmeaning, the absurd, or antiart." In this regard the combine paintings relate to Pop art
and their much earlier predecessor Dada
.
, which had balked at buying Rauschenberg's work decades earlier, spent $12 million to buy his Factum II which the artist made in 1957. Rauschenberg's Rebus was valued in 1991 at $7.3 million. It's a three-panel work created in 1955 which takes its name from the Latin for a "puzzle of images and words;" it "builds a narrative from seemingly nonsensical sequences of found images and abstract elements," according to The New York Times
. MOMA bought Rebus in 2005. Rauschenberg reportedly said that the images in Rebus jostle with each other "like pedestrians on a street." Rauschenberg's Photograph, a Combine painting from 1959, was valued at $10.7 million by Sotheby's in 2008. His work Bantam sold for $2.6 million in 2009. In 2008, New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, who described Combines as "multimedia hybrids", wrote MOMA was "Rauschenberg Central" because it owned over 300 of his works. The Whitney owned 60 Rauschenbergs.
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. Items attached to paintings might include photographic images, clothing, newspaper clippings, ephemera
Ephemera
Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters,...
or any number of three-dimensional
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
objects. The term is most closely associated with the artwork of American artist Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
(1925–2008) who coined the phrase to describe his own creations. Rauschenberg’s Combines explored the blurry boundaries between art and the everyday world. In addition, his cross-medium creations challenged the doctrine of medium specificity
Medium specificity
Medium specificity is a consideration in aesthetics and art criticism. It is most closely associated with modernism, but it predates it. According to Clement Greenberg, who helped popularize the term, medium specificity holds that "the unique and proper area of competence" for a form of art...
mentioned by modernist art critic Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg was an American essayist known mainly as an influential visual art critic closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century...
. Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
created a large body of paintings that recall the combine paintings of Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...
by juxtaposing a wide variety of surface and material in each work ultimately leading to Stella's sculpture and architecture of the 21st century.
Rauschenberg
Rauschenberg and his artist friend Jasper JohnsJasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
used to design window displays together for upscale retailers such as Tiffany's
Tiffany's
Tiffany's Restaurants, Inc. is a restaurant chain with 6 locations in New Jersey. Its flagship location was opened at Union, New Jersey in 1982 as Tiffany Gardens.-Reviews:...
and Bonwit Teller
Bonwit Teller
Bonwit Teller was a department store in New York City founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street. In 1897 Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership and the store moved to 23rd Street, East of Sixth Avenue...
in Manhattan before they became better established as artists. They shared ideas about art as well as career strategies. Paul Schimmel of the Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
described Rauschenberg's Combine paintings as "some of the most influential, poetic and revolutionary works in the history of American art." But they've also been called "ramshackle hybrids between painting and sculpture, stage prop and three-dimensional scrap-book assemblage" according to Guardian critic Adrian Searle. Searle believed the "different elements of the Combines have been described as having no more relation than the different stories that vie for attention on a newspaper page." Jasper Johns, as well, used similar techniques; in at least one painting, Johns attached a paintbrush right inside his painting.
Examples of Rauschenberg's Combine paintings include Bed (1955), Canyon (1959), and the free-standing Monogram (1955–1959). Rauschenberg's works mostly incorporated two-dimensional materials held together with "splashes and drips of paint" with occasional 3-D objects. Critic John Perreault wrote "The Combines are both painting and sculpture–or, some purists would say, neither." Perreault liked them since they were memorable, photogenic, and "stick in the mind" as well as "surprise and keep on surprising." Rauschenberg added stuffed birds on his 1955 work Satellite, which featured a stuffed pheasant "patrolling its top edge." In another work, he added a ladder. His Combine Broadcast, three radios blaring at once which was a "melange of paint, grids, newspaper clips and fabric snippets." According to one source, his Broadcast had three radios playing simultaneously, which produced a sort of irritating static, so that one of the work's owners, at one point, replaced the "noise" with tapes of actual programs when guests visited. Rauschenberg's The Bed had a pillow attached to a patchwork quilt with paint splashed over it. The idea was to promote immediacy.
The prevailing theme of Rauschenberg's "combine" paintings is "nonmeaning, the absurd, or antiart." In this regard the combine paintings relate to Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
and their much earlier predecessor Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
.
Exponential increase in value
In the early 1960s, Rauschenberg's Combines sold from $400 to $7,500. But their value shot upwards. In 1999, the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, which had balked at buying Rauschenberg's work decades earlier, spent $12 million to buy his Factum II which the artist made in 1957. Rauschenberg's Rebus was valued in 1991 at $7.3 million. It's a three-panel work created in 1955 which takes its name from the Latin for a "puzzle of images and words;" it "builds a narrative from seemingly nonsensical sequences of found images and abstract elements," according to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. MOMA bought Rebus in 2005. Rauschenberg reportedly said that the images in Rebus jostle with each other "like pedestrians on a street." Rauschenberg's Photograph, a Combine painting from 1959, was valued at $10.7 million by Sotheby's in 2008. His work Bantam sold for $2.6 million in 2009. In 2008, New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, who described Combines as "multimedia hybrids", wrote MOMA was "Rauschenberg Central" because it owned over 300 of his works. The Whitney owned 60 Rauschenbergs.