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Wooden Gallop

Artist Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008)

CultureAmerican

Date1962

MediumMixed media (paint, paper, fragments of wood, and rusted metals) on plywood

DimensionsOverall: 49 × 49 1/2 × 10 3/4 in. (124.5 × 125.7 × 27.3 cm)
Overall, Frame: 31 1/2 × 49 1/2 × 1 3/4 in. (80 × 125.7 × 4.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.693

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is a mixed media on plywood artwork. It is a type of work that blurs the line between painting and sculpture: invented by the artist, he termed the artwork "Combine." This "Combine" includes brushwork, paper, fragments of wood, and various (rusted) metals attached to a plywood panel. A deflated yellow rubber life raft with a wooden paddle protrudes upward and outward from the frame. A coke can dangles from the yellow raft.

Label TextRobert Rauschenberg American, 1925–2008 Wooden Gallop, 1962 Mixed media on plywood In the early 1960s, Robert Rauschenberg dismissed long-held distinctions between painting and sculpture, and art and everyday life, by creating assemblages, or what he called “combines.” Here he loaded a plywood surface with paint, discarded cans, a piece of a life raft, and rusted metal shards. The meaning remains elusive and nonsensical, and the piece’s vague associations make traditional methods of art analysis useless. Yet, for all its deliberate disorder, the work achieves an unexpected balance and harmony, drawing fragments of our modern civilization into a singular object that celebrates chance and incongruity. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.693 ProvenanceDwan Gallery, Los Angeles, Calif., 1963; University Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin, Exhibition Program; Bianchini-Birillo Gallery, New York; Ben Birillo sold it to Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1966; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition HistoryBianchini-Birillo Gallery, New York, N.Y., date unkown. "Pop Art USA," presented by the Oakland Art Museum and the California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, Calif., September 7 - 29, 1963. (Exh. cat. no. 48). "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Remix: A Fresh Look At Our Modern And Contemporary Art Collections," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, November 2, 2011 - March 17, 2012. “From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery (1959-1971),” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 5 – September 10, 2017. Published ReferencesJohn Coplans, _Pop Art USA_, exh. cat., Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, Calif., 1963, no. 48. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 256. _The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Norfolk, Virginia_ (Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1982), 110. ISBN: 0-940744-37-6 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 234-235, no. 143. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Judy Metro, editor in chief, _Los Angeles to new York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971_, (Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2016): 123, cat.no.20. ISBN: 978-0-226-42510-8