Embargo (Jammer) 1976

Rauschenberg made this artwork, Embargo, using found materials and his special way of putting things together. It feels like a theatre curtain, doesn’t it? There’s a creamy white cloth, draped kinda casually, with a rod holding it up, and a rope cinching it in the middle. It’s like Rauschenberg found these objects, maybe in a thrift store, maybe on the street and thought, ‘Hey, these things belong together!’ I wonder what he was thinking when he arranged that cloth, just so, letting it wrinkle and sag? Did he want to show us the beauty in ordinary things? Or was he trying to jam something? Rauschenberg always liked playing with the idea of what art can be, and how painting can be more than just paint. He's in a big conversation with other artists like Duchamp, who also used everyday stuff to make us think. It shows how artists keep talking to each other across time, inspiring new ways of seeing the world, doesn’t it?