Reservoir

Date: 1961
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1969/1969.47.70_1a.jpg?itok=v1Z0TjGK width="260" height="336" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/reservoir-20593"]] || Title: **Reservoir**

Artist: **Robert Rauschenberg** Born: Port Arthur, Texas 1925 Died: Captiva Island, Florida 2008

Medium: oil, wood, graphite, fabric, metal, and rubber on canvas Dimensions: 85 1/2 x 62 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (217.2 x 158.7 x 39.4 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Accession: 1969.47.70 || Rauschenberg was one of the beat generation of artists, writers, and musicians who attacked the barriers between art and life. In //Reservoir// a length of wood, two clocks, and a couple of cast-off wheels reach out from the painted surface into the viewer's space. But these elements do not add up to a single meaning. Instead, they convey both the randomness and order that Rauschenberg saw in everyday life. The arrangement of objects and thick, splashy brushstrokes represent his split-second decisions, and the two clocks precisely record when he started the work and the moment he considered it finished. The rebelliousness of the beats led to the pop art of the 1960s, and for decades thereafter, Rauschenberg made light of himself as "Poppa Pop."
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Rauschenberg Biography
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Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">SAAM Collections Page
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