Robert Rauschenberg Hybrid 1970 planographic lithograph, printed in five colours from one stone and four aluminium plates

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).