Should Love Come First 1951

Robert Rauschenberg made this artwork, we don't know when, layering paint with collage in a way that feels both chaotic and considered. It’s like he’s asking, how can we make sense of the world when it’s throwing so much at us? There’s so much texture here, from the smoothness of the painted areas to the rough edges of the collaged elements, especially in the upper left corner. The black footprint makes me think of Jasper Johns, it pulls you in with its dark, smudgy presence. Then, the diagram of a clock or some kind of mechanism, it suggests a kind of order. The phrase "Should Love Come First?" floats above the chaos and the measured order, suggesting that it is perhaps the question that can't be measured or quantified. Rauschenberg's approach reminds me a bit of Kurt Schwitters, especially in the way they both embrace the ephemera of daily life. This work isn't about answers, it’s about the process of questioning and exploring, embracing the ambiguity that makes art, and life, so endlessly fascinating.