Robert Rauschenberg, 1925-2008

Robert Rauschenberg has died at 82. I love Rauschenberg, even if his actual works of art didn't appeal to me. I love the fact that he was always experimenting. He seemed to have a great sense of humor. I don't think I've read much about his philosophy of art, but the NY Times obit has some great lines:

The process — an improvisatory, counterintuitive way of doing things — was always what mattered most to him. “Screwing things up is a virtue,” he said when he was 74. “Being correct is never the point. I have an almost fanatically correct assistant, and by the time she re-spells my words and corrects my punctuation, I can’t read what I wrote. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.”

Let's hear it for chaos.

"I think you’re born an artist or not. I couldn’t have learned it. And I hope I never do because knowing more only encourages your limitations.”

There's something to be said for knowing your limitations, but there's also something to be said for, every now and then, willfully ignoring them.

Let's hear it for a man who so thoroughly embraced the idea of art as adventure.