Robert Rauschenberg died

Two artists that had a tremendous influence over my life as a painter in my 20s were Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg. Last night Rauschenberg died at age 82 in Florida. In one very memorable act, the course of art history collided, when Rauschenberg went to de Kooning's Greenwich Village studio with a bottle of Jack Daniels (de Kooning was an incorrigible alcoholic) to ask the modern master of painting and drawing, at the peak of his career, if he could erase one of his drawings. de Kooning wasn't very happy with the request but granted the young unknown painter his wish.Rauschenberg took the de Kooning drawing away that night and began to erase it and when the work was exhibited it caused controversy in the art world. The arguably "best artist in the world" de Kooning was outraged. According to de Kooning's biographer, the Dutch immigrant artist feared pop-art and neo-Dada was supplanting the New York School of Abstract Expressionism and that Rauschenberg had laid down an anti-expressionist manifesto, of sorts, by not so much the act of erasing the drawing but by hanging it in an exhibition of new American artists. In other words, de Kooning expected it all to end after that night and that it would not surface in the art world front and center. The significance of Rauschenberg's act wasn't lost on the New York art critics - especially Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg both highly critical of Pop Art and what they termed Kitsch. There was much speculation that Abstract Expressionism had run it course and a new generation of pop-artists using direct images from the popular media and capitalist advertising carried a more relevant message that the painters from the 40s and 50s obscured with action painting and flat drip field obfuscation. Rauschenberg's act of erasure was taken as a statement that "Abstract Expressionism is Dead!" And de Kooning in his darker moments also began to think Rauschenberg act of fluxus did signify exactly this sentiment.----Walker Art Center has in its permanent collection 120 prints and two multiples by Rauschenberg including the 1960 painting Trophy II (for Teeny and Marcel Duchamp) currently on display in Gallery 2. The Minneapolis Institute of Art has one combine sculpture and numerous prints including Rauschenberg's largest (72" by 638") but none of his work is currently hanging at MIA.

source: http://fluxusdesign.blogspot.com/2008/05/robert-rauschenberg-1925-2008.html