Robert Rauschenberg

American, 1925-2008

Booster from the series Booster and Seven Studies

© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Published by Gemini G.E.L.

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Booster from the series Booster and Seven Studies

© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Published by Gemini G.E.L.

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Booster from the series Booster and Seven Studies

© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Published by Gemini G.E.L.

Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

Booster from the series Booster and Seven Studies, 1967

Artwork Details

Materials

lithograph and screen print

Edition:

28/38

Measurements

sheet: 72 x 35 1/2 inches (182.88 x 90.17 cm)

Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Credit

By exchange: Charles W. Goodyear Fund, Sherman S. Jewett Fund, Charles W. Goodyear and Mrs. Georgia M. G. Forman Funds and Gift of Mrs. Georgia M. G. Forman, 2016

Accession ID

P2016:8

Robert Rauschenberg’s approach to art was exceedingly innovative, often resulting in works that elude categorization. His collaborations with printmakers, for example, did not always yield traditional results. The artist’s self-portrait Booster exemplifies his highly experimental approach to the medium. Here, Rauschenberg brings together a seemingly disparate collection of imagery: a life-sized X-ray portrait of himself, an astrological chart, pictures of athletes taken from magazines, and images of a chair and two power drills. By combining the processes of lithography and screen printing, the artist, together with master printmaker Kenneth Tyler, radically expanded the aesthetic possibilities of planographic printmaking, which utilizes a flat, as opposed to a raised, surface. At the time of its creation, Booster was the largest and most technically sophisticated hand-pulled print ever produced, and it catapulted printmaking into a new era of experimentation.

Label from Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s, June 30–December 30, 2018

Other Works by This Artist