65. ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG (1925-2008) SLING-SHOTS LIT # 6 RR84-1112 From 'Sling-Shots Lit Series 1985 Incised signature, titled, dated and numbered 25/25 on a metal plate affixed to the left side Colour lithograph and screen print on mylar sheet and sailcloth, set in a wooden light box with fluorescent light and removable blinds Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Ingekrast met handtekening, getiteld, gedateerd en genummerd 25/25 op een metalen plaatje aan de linkerzijde. Litho en zeefdruk in kleuren op mylar vellen en zeildoek, gevat in een houten lichtbak met fluorescerend licht en beweegbare vensterluiken. Uitgegeven door Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles Incised with signature, titled, dated and numbered 25/25 on a metal plaque affixed to the left side Lithograph and screenprint in colours on mylar sheets and sailcloth, set into a wooden lightbox with fluorescent light and moveable window shades Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles 214,6 x 142,6 x 31,4 cm Provenance / Herkomst Guy Pieters Gallery; Knokke Private collection / privécollectie, Belgium Bibliographie / Bibliografie Robert Rauschenberg and Gemini G.E.L, Gemini G.E.L Online Catalogue Raisonné, New York, no. 1175 The two works by Robert Rauschenberg that we are presenting in the sale of 30 April 2024 in Brussels are assemblages of light boxes with lithography and silkscreen on panels of Mylar and sailcloth; they were published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. Let's hear gallery owner Leo Castelli talk to director, actor and collector Claude Berri about the work of Robert Rauschenberg. Then Nancy Heller, author and art history professor, talks about Sling-Shots in particular. "I discovered them just like that, by chance, when I was looking for artists for the 9th Street exhibition. I could see straight away that he was hardly influenced by the 'greats', that he was clearly different. There were extraordinarily bold elements in his work, a search for something new that wasn't a continuation of what de Kooning and Pollock had started. There were elements in his work with which we were familiar, such as his use of collage. Picasso and so many others after him had used it, but Rauschenberg's use of it was more grandiose, more surprising, more based on things he found in the street. It was a little reminiscent of Schwitters, but with Schwitters everything was small, whereas Rauschenberg went so far as to use stuffed eagles and even stuffed goats. He went infinitely further than anyone before him in using elements foreign to painting. He was a great precursor who had, I believe, an enormous influence on subsequent generations. Rauschenberg looked around him, at life, at his neighbourhood, at the slums of Manhattan, at the misery and the rubbish, and that's what he wanted to show: life as it is. Robert Rauschenberg's idea was that the world at war should be reformed through art. He set himself the task of showing everywhere his art, which was made up of multiple images taken from news magazines or which he photographed himself. Claude Berri rencontre Leo Castelli, Paris, 1990, pp. 28, 35 and 69.