RAUSCHENBERG: A Gift in Your Pocket
From the Collections of Friends in Honor of Bradley Jeffries

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

 January 27 – May 13, 2023

Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography, 1968

In the late 70s, Bradley Jeffries had a chance meeting with Robert Rauschenberg outside his home on Captiva Island, and they bonded immediately. Bradley was hired to be the artist’s business and life manager. Her employment with him for over 30 years, until his death in 2008, involved many roles on the Board of Directors of Change, Inc and The Rauschenberg Foundation. Bradley’s travels with Rauschenberg took her on incredible adventures all over the world and exposed her to extraordinary opportunities. Throughout their friendship and work together, Rauschenberg gifted Bradley with many of his original artworks.

The family and friends of Bradley Jeffries will use her expansive and never previously exhibited Rauschenberg collection as a means of memorializing Bradley through this traveling exhibition. “Rauschenberg: A Gift in Your Pocket” opens on April 25, 2022 at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College in Ft. Myers for display throughout the summer. After which her collection will travel to The University of Kentucky Art Museum followed by its culminating exhibition at BMCM+AC. 

Once her collection of Rauschenberg’s artwork completes its planned memorial exhibitions, pieces will be donated to each of the involved institutions in an ongoing memorial to Bradley and her legacy of promoting the arts and artists.

Curated by Jade Dellinger, Director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College.

Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1923 Port Arthur, TX – d. 2008 Captiva Island, FL)

An artist for nearly six decades, Robert Rauschenberg explored a variety of mediums throughout his career. As a painter, sculptor, printmaker, performer, and collage artist, he embraced Neo-Dada styles within his practice and played an early role in the Pop Art movement. Rauschenberg attended the University of Texas at Austin and the Académie Julian in Paris before continuing his education at Black Mountain College in 1948. At BMC, Rauschenberg sought out the instruction of Josef Albers, and he befriended and collaborated with prominent BMC figures such as John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Cy Twombly. Rauschenberg is now heralded as one of the greatest contemporary artists of the 20th century.

– Written by Bea Bradley, Spring 2023 Intern

Image: Hazel Larsen Archer, Robert Rauschenberg at Black Mountain College, c. 1948. Vintage gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer.

Highlight Videos from RAUSCHENBERG: A Gift in Your Pocket

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OPENING RECEPTION: RAUSCHENBERG: A Gift in Your Pocket
January 27th, 2023
Join us for the exhibition’s opening at BMCM+AC with a gallery talk from curator Jade Dellinger, Director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College.