Retroactive I 1964

Robert Rauschenberg made "Retroactive I" using screen printing, which is like a mechanical form of painting. The image almost melts before your eyes, doesn't it? There’s this astronaut floating in the corner, and JFK right next to it - two symbols of the time - mixed in with all these painterly drips and strokes. I love how the red paint looks like it's bleeding into the image of JFK, so heavy! It's like a memory that's both vivid and distorted, where everything blends together and colors mix. Then there are these odd contrasting images, like the jar of fruit. Rauschenberg, like his buddy Jasper Johns, was interested in how we see and remember, and this piece really captures that. It's a bit like what Sigmar Polke was doing in Germany at the same time: layering images to make a statement. Art is always in conversation, one idea bouncing off another. What do you think this conversation is trying to tell us?