Pop Art by Robert Rauschenberg Celebrates Earth Day

As an artist and as a citizen, Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was deeply concerned with how his art could help change the world for the better. During his lifetime, his artwork addressed issues of environmentalism, war, racial equality, nuclear disarmament, apartheid, economic development, and artists’ rights – an array of big-picture social and political themes that […]

Cubist Artist Juan Gris

Spanish Cubist Artist Juan Gris (1887-1927) was born in Madrid, with his original name Jose Victoriano Gonzalez. Gris was one of the lead artists in the cubist movement. As a painter, Gris was part of the ‘School of Paris’ (Ecole de Paris) -movement. Gris’s subject-matter was always his immediate surroundings: he produced still lifes composed […]

Elegy for Robert Rauschenberg

Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in that gap between the two.) – Robert Rauschenberg, 1959 “Elegy for Robert Rauschenberg is an homage to an artist who was my personal hero, and my nemesis, in my student years.” says Susan Sollins-Brown from Art21. “He was my […]

Pop Art Forerunner Robert Rauschenberg died at 82

The American artist Robert Rauschenberg passed away May 13 at age 82. Rauschenberg gained fame in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Several of his works — including “Canyon,” which featured a stuffed bald eagle affixed to a canvas; “Monogram,” a stuffed Angora goat on top of a painted panel; and “Bed,” […]

The Artist’s Mother ~ Haring, Hockney, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso …

For this special day, honoring Motherhood, I thought to look at how some artists have depicted their own mother or an archetypal mother. Who’s Mom? The artists’ real mothers are displayed as persons with their own life. She is an individual with a personal life and character as is witnessed by her child, the artist. […]

American Conceptual Artist Barbara Kruger Probes Your Views

Barbara Kruger juxtaposes mass media photographs with biting slogans. Her art both questions and condemns mass media’s ways of control self-identity, desire, and public opinion. In their trademark black letters against red background, her slogans are instantly recognizable. Much of her often razor-sharp text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and […]