Brace 1962

Robert Rauschenberg made this 'Combine' called Brace using mixed media on canvas, but when, I don't know, time becomes so fluid with his work. The way he layers images and paint, it's like a conversation between different worlds. A baseball game, captured in monochrome, merges with these broad, gestural strokes of white and black paint. I love how the paint isn’t trying to hide, it's right there, unapologetically thick in places, thinned out, and drippy in others. The materiality is so present. Look at that patch of white at the bottom, see how it almost dissolves into drips? It feels like the energy of the game is seeping into the very fabric of the canvas. It reminds me of Cy Twombly, how he also let the paint do its thing, embracing the mess. Ultimately, the beauty lies in the unresolved, in the space between the image and the gesture. It’s never quite one thing, and that's what keeps it alive.