Goodbye, Robert Rauschenberg

Artist Robert Rauschenberg died on Monday, and a tribute post on the MONOlog is most necessary. Rauschenberg's work had a huge influence on me during my formative years in design school. Back in 1999 (+/-) I spent an entire day at the Guggenheim in NYC taking in his installation which spanned 3 spiraling levels. (Did anyone else see this?) I felt an instant connection to his work. It was like he had articulated a point of view towards art that I had been trying to form towards design. He found beauty in the un-considered, created meaning in the mundane, saw uniqueness in found objects. I remember thinking "You can do that?". It was like his work had granted me permission to fixate on those beautiful things that make up the backdrop of our everyday lives - things that aren't supposed to be beautiful - and shed new light on them to create something entirely new and fascinating.

Rauschenberg didn't try to fit into a category or genre, and his work defies classical definitions of "art" and "craft". So we can't turn to those definitions to evaluate it. Instead we're forced to decide for ourselves what we will take away, if anything. I get the feeling he didn't care how his work was being received. And I've always felt like his approach represents a great lesson for all artists, whether making art, writing music, or designing products.

David Byrne just wrote a cool piece in the New York Times about his own experiences with "Bob" since the mid-'80s, when Rauschenberg designed the artwork for the Talking Heads album "Speaking In Tongues". Yes, David Byrne is THAT cool.