Robert Rauschenberg, Complete Relaxation, 1958

1958

Medium

solvent transfer with gouache, watercolour, graphite and black crayon on Strathmore paper mounted on board

Dimensions

4 × 28 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-153562

Complete Relaxation dates from the the first year of Robert Rauschenberg's intensive involvement with the transfer drawing process. An idyllic sounding title names a work that is much about doubling. This is especially true of the pair of perpendicular figures at the centre, placed on either side of a protective suited diver (or astronaut?). The pair to the right is slightly fainter, as a second use of a source image would be, and they strongly recall the Dante and Virgil stand-ins in the contemporary Dante illustrations, begun the same year. The woman exercising at upper left is also a doubled identical image, stacked vertically and the circular diagram at top centre is excised and doubled at some distance, at the lower left corner, just below a pair of jewels. The circle proves to be part of a diagrammatic land map, labelled ‘Acquire for Addition to Division’. It shows three streets: Dayton and Newtown Lanes, and Main Street. The former two are indeed parallel lanes that intersect with Main Street in East Hampton, Long Island, a popular destination for post-war artists. Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns visited the area the following summer. They were part of a large group photograph by John Gruen that included artists Larry Rivers and Grace Hartigan on nearby Water Mill beach.