Untitled (Runt) 2008

This is a Rauschenberg, so you know it’s made with a magpie eye for whatever’s around. It’s a photographic image, but not really a photograph. It’s a silkscreen, and it’s been printed and layered multiple times. I can almost imagine Rauschenberg spotting a ramshackle shack somewhere, instantly recognizing its artistic potential, and thinking ‘I need to capture this.’ See how he repeats the image in a grid, but it’s all slightly off, like a printing error or a fading memory? The color feels muted, almost nostalgic. There’s a tension there between the flat picture plane and the depth of field within the photograph. Rauschenberg had a knack for elevating the everyday into art, transforming the mundane into something beautiful and thought-provoking. I look at the image and I feel like he’s in conversation with the Bechers, Walker Evans, Warhol – artists who found profound beauty in the ordinary, and made it sing.