Allegory 1960

Rauschenberg made this artwork called Allegory, probably in the mid to late twentieth century, by doing what he liked to do: combining painting with found objects, collage, and printmaking. The colours are muted, like looking back, but the way he puts the thing together feels fresh and alive. Looking closely, you can see how he layered the materials. The physicality is really where it's at for me: you get the sense of the artist's hand, the process of building up the surface, but also tearing it down to create something new. Like that column of crumpled metal; it's not just a shape, it's got texture and depth, casting its own shadows. It's like the whole thing is about time, memory, and the stuff we leave behind. Rauschenberg, like his buddy Jasper Johns, knew art wasn’t about one single thing, it was about possibilities. Think of Kurt Schwitters' collages or maybe even some of the early assemblage work by Picasso; all these artists were interested in pushing the boundaries of what art could be, embracing the messiness and ambiguity of life.