I just got back from a trip to D.C., where art, architecture and history crept from every crevice and pore in the city. My top priority upon arrival was to visit the National Gallery of Art and check out the Rauschenberg exhibit. Since we were traveling with a group and I had a business meeting on my first day there, I had to make some concessions and postpone the pilgrimage until day two of the trip.Rauschenberg is one of my top three artists (in the company of Van Gogh and Jasper Johns). He has perhaps had the most immediate impact on my visual aesthetic. He is hybrid graphic designer, fine artist, sculptor, painter, and social activist.
The National Gallery's exhibit does a great job of telling the story of Rauschenberg's evolution as a printmaker. The exhibit begins with more esoteric subject matter being told through his early trials and mistrials of printmaking. It then evolves to showcase an artist in control of his medium, one broadening his palette to include powerful symbolism juxtaposed with mundane scenes of everyday life and highlighted in dramatic color in dynamic compositions. It is this later work that has always fascinated me. The juxtaposition of a huge blue JFK with an astronaut in the background connects fragments of our collective history without telling us exactly how we should feel about that particular period in time so that, as he intended, the viewer is as involved in the art as the artist himself.
Robert Rauschenberg: Retrospective I
One of the great surprises of this trip was that a friend of ours has recently begun working for Ted Kennedy's office. We were able to tour his office while he and the other Senators were home for the holidays. His office was like a national treasure of history. The very juxtapositions that I so admire in Rauschenberg's works were echoed in the mementos displayed on Kennedy's walls. His brother's dog tags, a letter from Rose correcting his grammar, and paintings that he had made of his boat.
The understated intimacy of the space was remarkable. His family's work and legacy belongs to this nation, yet the same humble care that we take of our own children, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles is a current running palpably through the stories and mementos on display in one of our longest serving Senator's office. There was something very reaffirming about the experience. It seemed his moral compass was well-tuned, despite his length of service in a tough political arena.
Ted Kennedy's Office: A National Treasure of History
