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In Rookery Mounds—Night Tork, Rauschenberg built up the image by printing dark brown, beige, and blue, the latter two on aluminum plates, the former on a lithographic stone. The image on stone combines both photographic reproduction and drawing marks made with tusche crayon. A paved sidewalk in linear perspective leads the viewer’s eye to an image of stacked mattresses topped by pillows. This seems to be superimposed in front of an image of palm fronds and perhaps a sun, printed in the beige. The blue image is of industrial pipes and insulation, and in the lower right is a contorted piece of detritus.
The images were gathered from the artist’s photographs, taken in 1970 around Fort Myers, Florida, not far from his place on Captiva Island. The photographs were first used in Rauschenberg’s set and costume designs for Glacial Decoy, a performance by the Trisha Brown dance company. They were used again in a book project: two print editions done at Universal Limited Art Editions, and the Rookery Mounds lithographs done at Gemini G.E. L. “I became addicted [to photography] again,” he said. After the decision early in his career to forego photography for painting, he was drawn back to the camera both as a tool for adding images to his art, and as a tool to create art. “It [the camera] heightened my desire to look,” he explained. “The constant survey of changing light and shadows sharpens all of the awarenesses necessary not only to make photographs, but functions as fertilizer to promote growth and change in any artistic style.” [1]
Rookery Mounds—Night Tork is the first of eleven images in the Rookery Mounds sequence. The individual editions of fifty were produced with the collaboration and supervision of Gemini master printmakers. A rookery is a place where some birds or animals breed in large numbers. Other titles in the series are: Steel Arbor; Grape Leaves; Moon Melon: Mud Dauber; Masthead; Grey Garden; Yardarm; Crystal; Rose Bay; Level. In an interview, Rauschenberg said, “I love titling. … Once the titling process starts, I have to make sure that I can write fast in order to remember, but I love that. I’ve always considered that in painting, prints, and theater, the title is the last brushstroke.” [2]
Notes:
[1] Mary Lynn Kotz, Rauschenberg: Art and Life (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1990), 230.
[2] Mark Rosenthal, Artists at Gemini G. E. L. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1993), 142.
ProvenanceFrom 1980
Reynolda House Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from Castelli Graphics, New York on February 26, 1980. [1]
Notes:
[1] Bill of sale, object file.
Exhibition History2007
Abstract/Object: Mid-Twentieth Century Art from the Reynolda House Collection
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/27/2007-6/17/2007)
2022
Substrata: The Spirit of Collage in 76 Years of Art
Reynolda House Musuem of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (3/18/2022-7/31/22)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Rookery Mounds - Night Tork
Artist
Robert Rauschenberg
(1925 - 2008)
Date1979
MediumThree-color lithograph
DimensionsFrame: 46 1/4 x 36 in. (117.5 x 91.4 cm)
Paper: 41 x 31 in. (104.1 x 78.7 cm)
SignedRAUSCHENBERG
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
CopyrightArt © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Gemini G.E.L/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY, Published by Gemini G.E.L
Object number1980.2.5
DescriptionThe contrast between Robert Rauschenberg’s heavily industrial hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, and the stunning natural beauty of his later residence in southwest Florida is paradoxically highlighted and equalized in the Rookery Mounds series of lithographs. The use of images from disparate sources harkens back to his Combines of the 1950s in which he attached three-dimensional objects to his paintings.In Rookery Mounds—Night Tork, Rauschenberg built up the image by printing dark brown, beige, and blue, the latter two on aluminum plates, the former on a lithographic stone. The image on stone combines both photographic reproduction and drawing marks made with tusche crayon. A paved sidewalk in linear perspective leads the viewer’s eye to an image of stacked mattresses topped by pillows. This seems to be superimposed in front of an image of palm fronds and perhaps a sun, printed in the beige. The blue image is of industrial pipes and insulation, and in the lower right is a contorted piece of detritus.
The images were gathered from the artist’s photographs, taken in 1970 around Fort Myers, Florida, not far from his place on Captiva Island. The photographs were first used in Rauschenberg’s set and costume designs for Glacial Decoy, a performance by the Trisha Brown dance company. They were used again in a book project: two print editions done at Universal Limited Art Editions, and the Rookery Mounds lithographs done at Gemini G.E. L. “I became addicted [to photography] again,” he said. After the decision early in his career to forego photography for painting, he was drawn back to the camera both as a tool for adding images to his art, and as a tool to create art. “It [the camera] heightened my desire to look,” he explained. “The constant survey of changing light and shadows sharpens all of the awarenesses necessary not only to make photographs, but functions as fertilizer to promote growth and change in any artistic style.” [1]
Rookery Mounds—Night Tork is the first of eleven images in the Rookery Mounds sequence. The individual editions of fifty were produced with the collaboration and supervision of Gemini master printmakers. A rookery is a place where some birds or animals breed in large numbers. Other titles in the series are: Steel Arbor; Grape Leaves; Moon Melon: Mud Dauber; Masthead; Grey Garden; Yardarm; Crystal; Rose Bay; Level. In an interview, Rauschenberg said, “I love titling. … Once the titling process starts, I have to make sure that I can write fast in order to remember, but I love that. I’ve always considered that in painting, prints, and theater, the title is the last brushstroke.” [2]
Notes:
[1] Mary Lynn Kotz, Rauschenberg: Art and Life (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1990), 230.
[2] Mark Rosenthal, Artists at Gemini G. E. L. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1993), 142.
ProvenanceFrom 1980
Reynolda House Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from Castelli Graphics, New York on February 26, 1980. [1]
Notes:
[1] Bill of sale, object file.
Exhibition History2007
Abstract/Object: Mid-Twentieth Century Art from the Reynolda House Collection
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/27/2007-6/17/2007)
2022
Substrata: The Spirit of Collage in 76 Years of Art
Reynolda House Musuem of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (3/18/2022-7/31/22)
Published References
Status
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