Princeton University Art Museum exhibits “Time Capsule 1970: Rauschenberg’s Currents,” Jan. 19 to Feb. 10. Admission is free.
In a burst of activity in early 1970, “groundbreaking” American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) made collages of newspaper clippings of the day, photographed the collages and ultimately silk screened them to create three seminal print series.
Considered Rauschenberg’s first expressly activist works of art, they evoke the escalating turbulence and concerns of the times – from violent social unrest and the ongoing war in Vietnam, to economic pessimism and political assassinations.
One of the series, a portfolio of 18 large-scale screenprints, “Surface Series from Currents,” will be shown in its entirety for the first time since 1970, affording a rare opportunity to re-evaluate the work of one of the most important American artists of the past half-century. The 18 black-and-white screenprints, all 40 inches by 40 inches, are drawn from the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum.
Curated by Calvin Brown, the museum’s associate curator of prints and drawings, and Juliana Dweck, the museum’s Andrew W. Mellon curator of academic engagement, a lecture by Brown is scheduled for 2 p.m. Feb. 8.
