The Dante Drawings of Robert Rauschenberg (1964) Exhibition Poster

Artist: Robert Rauschenberg
Date: 1964
Size: 420 x 596
Print: Offset lithograph
Condition: (A)

Believed to be an untrimmed proof sheet of Rauschenberg's UK exhibition poster (designed by Richard Hamilton), minus the overprint of location and date. The touring exhibition (20 April - 2 May 1964) was organised by the Museum of Modern Art, New York via the Cultural Affairs section of the US Embassy in London.

Robert Rauschenberg. Canto XXXI: The Central Pit of Malebolge, The Giants from the series 'Thirty- Four Illustrations for Dante's Inferno'.

'In eighteen months, Rauschenberg created thirty-four illustrations for Dante's Inferno, using the technique of transfer drawing. Each illustration, one for each canto, is intended to be read vertically from upper left to lower right as an episodic narrative with sequential events flowing into one another. Characters in the allegory are represented by photographs—culled from the mass media— of athletes, politicians, and astronauts, among others. In this image, Dante and his guide, Virgil, approach the eighth circle of Hell. Dante appears in the upper left-hand corner as a man wrapped in a towel. The guardians of Hell, described in the poem as formidable giants, are shown at the lower right as Olympic athletes standing on a podium. The oversized chain link indicates the giants' power; it also refers to their being chained for their sins. Below, the tiny figures of the two poets are lowered into the pit. By using recognizable imagery to relate the classic text of a quest for divine truth, Rauschenberg integrates the high and the low, the real and the illusory, the past and the present.

In creating his illustrations, the artist clipped reproductions from magazines, coated them with chemical solvent, and placed them face down on the drawing surface. The reverse sides of the clippings were rubbed over with a pen, transferring the images onto the paper. Finally, an overlay of transparent washes of gouache and pencil marks was added to allude to different moods or emotional states.’ (Source) www.moma.org

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