Robert Rauschenbergs Almanac Essay - 1427 Words

Robert Rauschenbergs Almanac Born on October 22nd 1925 in the oil-refining city of Port Arthur, Texas neà ¨ Milton Ernest Rauschenberg, he later renamed himself Robert after his Grandfather. Rauschenbergs father was one of the many blue coloured workers in the oil refineries whilst his mother worked as a telephone operator. He first studied art during his final years at high school but this was quickly cut short when in 1943 he entered the local University of Texas to study Physics only to be expelled in his first year due to learning difficulties, dyslexia, which was then not recognised and so from there he entered into military service with the navy for one year working in the hospitals as he â€Å"did not want to kill anyone† and here†¦show more content†¦He was one of the first artists to experiment with blueprint paper in the early fifties, and then he began to incorporate the everyday found objects and daily media images from the press, he wanted to act in the gap between art and life and found mediums that best did that for him whether it be photographs, (he often would have a camera on him and built up an extensive library of images from his travels through life), magazine clippings, junk, found used objects or images from history books. The Dada movement formed during the First World War clearly affected Robert’s work; they promoted the use of collage and assemblage, in particular artists such as Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Hoch as well as artists of the movement such as Man Ray being the first to adopt photographic materials for artistic purposes. Dadaists broke down the boundaries between art and everyday life, for they were concerned with provoking the public into reacting to their activities and Rauschenberg too â€Å"did not want to create enduring masterpieces for an elite but to further a perpetual process of discovery in which everyone could participate† It was in 1962 that Rauschenberg picked up the silk screening process and both he and Andy Warhol explored this new technique together. The process for Almanac would consist of him enlarging his chosen images onto the photosensitive silk screens, which he would then lay on top of the canvas and force the black viscous