Copperhead Grande/ROCI CHILE 1985

This is a large-scale painting by Robert Rauschenberg, called *Copperhead Grande/ROCI CHILE*. I imagine him in the studio wrestling with the surface, layering on image after image in a dance of chance and intention. The muted, earthy palette makes me think of the desert. But then there are these flashes of bright yellow and blue that kind of jolt you awake. It's like a landscape but also a dreamscape, with images that seem to float in and out of focus. What was he thinking when he chose these images? What did he want to say? There's a horse with a camera, flowers, pottery, and what looks like a car wreck. Each of these images is a little world unto itself, and they all add up to something bigger, something that feels both familiar and strange. Rauschenberg was a master of collage. Like other painters he helps us see the world in new ways. He shows us how images can collide and combine to create new meanings. He reminds us that art is not just about what we see, but about how we see.