In Hybrid, Rauschenberg has combined elements of the
natural world (the bird & the trees) with elements of the man-made world
(the rocket & what looks like a wooden wall).
In 1969 Rauschenberg was given the privilege of witnessing the launch of Apollo 11. NASA
provided him with detailed maps, charts & photographs which he incorporated
into his Stoned Moon series which this piece is a part of. This piece & the
others in the Stoned Moon series are upbeat, happy pieces celebrating
humankind’s peaceful, responsive, responsible collaboration between man &
technology which allows us to explore the wonders of space.
Robert Rauschenberg, born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg
(October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was born in Texas & died in Florida. He
lived mostly in New York City, where his early works anticipated the Pop Art
movement in the city. He was awarded the National medal of arts in 1993 &
the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts in 1995 in recognition of more than
40 years of acclaimed & innovative work in the fields of painting,
sculpture, ‘Combines’ (combination of painting & sculpture), photography,
printmaking, papermaking & performance. He was part of the Neo-Dada & Abstarct Expressionist
movements & he was instructed by Josef Albers, a founder of the Bauhaus,
who influenced him to do exactly the reverse of what was taught to him on the
strict, no-experimentation-allowed course. Rauschenberg also studied in France
at the Académie Julian, where he met
his future wife Susan Weil, a painter. He married Weil in 1950 & they had
one child, Christopher, in 1951, who became a photographer. Their marriage only
lasted 3 years & after this time Rauschenberg had romantic relationships
with fellow artists Cy Twombly & Jasper Johns.
Jonathan D. Katz states in an article that Rauschenberg’s affair with Cy Twombly began during his
marriage to Susan Weil.
He died in 2008 of heart failure after a personal
decision to go off life support. He is survived by his partner of 25 years
& former assistant, artist Darryl Pottorf. Rauschenberg’s sister, Janet Begneaud is also still alive.
The description of the piece Hybrid on http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=102704&GETCS=1 says the piece has
five colours but I can only see three, white, yellow & red. The bright,
lemon yellow contrast with the deep crimson red, especially since there is more
red than yellow so the yellow ‘pops’ & draws the eyes to the places it highlights.
The rocket in the piece in pointed diagonally away from the trees & the
bird, indicating new technology enabling man to leave the earth behind to find
new knowledge which he can then use to deepen his understanding of his own
world & strengthen the bond between man & nature. The head of the bird
is one of the highest (in terms of composition) points of the piece, showing
the importance of respecting nature & non-human animals, as the ability to
respect all living things will be an important skill if man, on his
explorations of space, encounters any extra-terrestrial life. Rauschenberg
shows in Hybrid that man must have a balanced understanding of nature &
technology if he is ever going to be enlightened (enlightenment perhaps shown
by the bright flashes of yellow).