About
Six early Rauschenberg works kept by his friend Cy Twombly, including a rare 1950 assemblage, in their last days on Madison Avenue.
Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly met at the Art Students League in 1951 and traveled Italy, Morocco and Spain together, and Twombly held on to works that would otherwise have been lost. Among them is one of Rauschenberg's earliest surviving sculptures, a 1950 plaster assemblage of glass bottles, a twig and arrow fletching, plus a life-size cyanotype made with Susan Weil. It closes alongside the Duchamp show partway through this weekend, so do not wait for Sunday.
What to expect
Six works in a compact gallery: early sculptures built from found materials, a blueprint photogram, a Coca-Cola crate piece and a painting with newspaper and gravel. It is a quick, rewarding stop right beside the Duchamp readymades.
Good to know
- Shares the building with Gagosian's Duchamp show — see both in one stop
- The gallery does not open on the final day of the weekend
- Nearest subway is the 6 at 77th Street
- Good for fans of postwar American art and Black Mountain College history
Common questions
How many works are in the show?
Six early works from the Cy Twombly Foundation.
Why now?
Gagosian organized it during the centennial of Rauschenberg's birth.