Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac of works in aluminium by Robert Rauschenberg from 1991. The show consisted of two series of works “Night Shades” and “Phantoms” alongside photographs by the artists used as source images for the paintings. The works have images silkscreened onto brushed or polished metal with brush strokes of tarnish called Allum Black. “Phantoms” create images of street scenes which appear and disappear as you move around them and add your reflection into the mix. I love the way they reflect the other works around them setting up a dialogue. “Night Shades” are darker images giving the impressions of city night scenes. Closes 31 July 2021  

Eclectic exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the life and work of Robert Rauschenberg. I must admit I went to this show with a certain amount of trepidation as I’m not that keen on conceptual art but I loved it! The whole thing had more of a sense of humour than I expected. There were works that if you saw new work like this now would look clichéd but because Rauschenberg was one of the first to do this sort of work it felt fresh and exciting. Rauschenberg had been involved in a lot of performance art and is often hard to reproduce this n a gallery setting but this show had excellent videos of the dance work and a good section of photographs and programmes shown alongside an interactive sculpture called Oracle which incorporated the sound of radios and running water. My favourite pieces were the stuffed goat! Who can resist a stuffed goat in a rubber tyre! The commentary said he had found the goat in a second hand show and wanted to restore its dignity. I’m not sure ...