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ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925-2008)Night Walk (Urban Bourbon) 1988 signed and dated 88; dated and numbered 88.194 on the reverseacrylic and silkscreen ink on enamelled aluminium 121.7 by 183.5 cm. 47 15/16 by 72 1/4 in. Footnotes:This work is registered in the archives of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York, under RRF 88.194.ProvenanceGuy Pieters Gallery, Knokke-HeistAcquired directly from the above by the present owner circa 1989Night Walk (Urban Bourbon) from 1988 is a superbly atmospheric example from the celebrated Urban Bourbon series of paintings on metal that Robert Rauschenberg created between 1988 and 1996. Having travelled widely throughout his life, Rauschenberg participated in numerous international ventures and believed in the power of art as a catalyst for positive social change. From 1984 to 1991 he embarked on the ROCI project, the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, intended to spark a dialogue and achieve mutual understanding through creative work. The project was an expression of his long-term commitment to human rights and on a trip to Chile in 1984 Rauschenberg visited a copper mine and foundry where he learned from artist Benito Rojo about the potential of tarnishing agents on copper. He liked the metal's warm reflective qualities, explaining that, 'the metal carries the image instead of the opposite way around, where the paint is the image on the surface.' (the artist in: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac press release, BOREALIS 1988-92, www.ropac.net, 21 September 2021). Between 1985 and 1995 Rauschenberg went on to create fifteen different series of metal paintings including Urban Bourbon, all on varying supports that incorporated brass, aluminium and copper. The images featured in Night Walk (Urban Bourbon) have been taken from this trip to Chile, although much of the subject matter is familiar and appears in the artist's work throughout his career.Rauschenberg didn't want his paintings to be didactic; rather they are a collection of motifs that lead the viewer on their own journey, and are subject to the viewer's own thoughts, perceptions, and feelings. Photography and printmaking were two of his abiding interests, allowing him to document and reflect the countries he visited and the world around him, and the photographs used in his work are taken by the artist – often on his extensive travels. The title of the present work - Night Walk (Urban Bourbon) – alludes to the dark blue and black background that emphasises the silkscreened and somewhat familiar, everyday imagery of a commercial sign, a classical sculpture, the petals of a rose, a row of open windows and the lattice of patio chairs. The stark contrast of the images overlapping, cropped and interspersed with swift gestural brushstrokes, set against the bi-tonal background conjures up the feeling of a walk at dusk or in the night, when familiar shapes appear from and disappear into the shadows and become less recognisable. The Urban Bourbon works are paintings with expressionistic brushwork and silkscreened images on enamelled, mirrored and anodised aluminium. The title may reference an exchange between Rauschenberg and Willem de Kooning, where the latter artist was offered a bottle of Jack Daniel's by the former in exchange for participating in the now legendary Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953). The rhyme of 'urban' and 'bourbon' also reflects Rauschenberg's appreciation of wordplay. Works from the popular series can be found in the collections of some of the world's most esteemed institutions such as The Albertina Museum in Vienna; ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark; Fondation Beyeler, Riehen; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York amongst others.Over the course of his 60-year career, Rauschenberg worked in a wide range of media including painting, sculpture, fabric collage, printmaking, photography and performance, challenging gestural abstract painting at a time where Abstract Expressionism was the dominant creative philosophy in America. Studying at the famed Black Mountain College under the tutelage of Josef Albers, he quickly rose to be one of the most influential and experimental artists of his time, a progenitor of practically every post-war artistic development since Abstract Expressionism and the first American to win the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Biennale in 1964. Today, his works are highly sought after internationally, and Night Walk (Urban Bourbon) incorporates some of the artist's most recognisable and iconic techniques. With its juxtaposition between two different modes of paint application: gestural brushstrokes and mechanically reproduced imagery; the artist bridges the gap between Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism and wonderfully demonstrates his skill and keen eye for how imagery in modern media culture could be propagated, transformed and composed.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
