Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Rauschenberg is dead
This was another bit of a bummer. Rauschenberg was one of the true greats and I have been in awe of the breadth of his art for a long time. I remember the show at the Menil with the walls covered with his cardboard boxes and talking to people about that and just how mad it made some people. I just wondered what the conservationist must have thought about trying to keep CARDBOARD archival. I remember the pieces at the Menil on permanent display and just how many different kinds of art the guy dreamed up. Amazing. The painted quilt and bed on the wall in Chicago. Just amazing stuff. And a life out of a novel. Friends like John Cage. Makes you want to be an artist.
Also amazing what what a LOUSY job Houston's Chronicle did of reporting on his death. As usual, the lead stories were about murder and mayhem. Buried down below was a link to the AP article on him. That was it. Just the story off the wire. Like in a town of 10,000 people. At the same time, the Chicago Tribune reported on it as the lead story and actually went to the Art Institute and interviewed a variety of experts about why he was such a big deal. Gee, what a novel idea. Wonder if the Chronicle knows we have museums in Houston. And the New York Times ran his obit as the lead story too, with a four page article explaining his role in contemporary art. As usual, it was an excellent obituary. It was just so frustrating to see the Chronicle do such a crappy job.
One final thing about Rauschenberg: Isn't it amazing that the guy was making art up to the day he died? The guy was just pretty damn cool. Oh, and it's also very cool that he was from a piss-ant rural Texas town.
1 comment:
so people from "piss-ant rural Texas towns" can be big deals in the art world? interesting. :)
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