Presentation:
Who Is Robert Rauschenberg?
An illustrated lecture by Mary Lynn Kotz, author of RAUSCHENBERG / ART AND LIFE
Wednesday, October 26, 7:30 pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
56 Broadway, downtown Asheville
$10, $7 for BMCM+AC members and students with ID
"It should be an exercise in pleasure! I’m in love with what I do."
-Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg, who just turned 80, is arguably the most famous living artist in the world. "In the future, two artists will be remembered from the twentieth century," predicted Thomas Krens, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, "Pablo Picasso for the first half, Robert Rauschenberg for the second half."
Robert Rauschenberg came to Black Mountain College in 1948, to study with Josef Albers and stayed as student, teacher and artist-in-residence for the next several years. Mary Lynn Kotz, author of the prize-winning new edition of Rauschenberg/Art and Life (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.) will give a slide lecture, "Who is Robert Rauschenberg?", covering the artist's still-productive life, and how Black Mountain College impacted his art. As a student at Black Mountain College in the late 1940s and early 1950s Robert Rauschenberg studied with renowned teacher Josef Albers. He later commented, "Albers was a beautiful teacher and an impossible peson…He wasn’t easy to talk to, and I found his criticism so excruciating and so devastating that I never asked for it. Years later, though, I’m still learning what he taught me, because what he taught had to do with the entire visual world…I consider Albers the most important teacher I’ve ever had, and I’m sure he considered me one of his poorest students."
Journalist and biographer Mary Lynn Kotz is the author of four books, including the best selling Upstairs at the White House, Marvella: A Personal Journey, and Rauschenberg/Art and Life, first published in 1990 and released as a new edition in 2005. Having served as a contributing editor to ARTnews, she has also written numerous magazine articles on political and art figures.
"This is the must-have book for anyone interested in his work…This volume captures Rauschenberg’s achievement in words and images that honor the brilliance and exuberance that have made him a revolutionary force in modern art."
– ARTnews, Jan. 2005
Image: Cover of RAUSCHENBERG: ART AND LIFE by Mary Lynn Kotz
A jpeg of the author is also available
The Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College for public study and enjoyment. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.
