Closure

Closure is an important example of Rauschenberg’s transfer process. Like many of the artist’s works made from the 1950s on—including his Combines, Hoarfrosts, and silkscreened prints—Closure possesses a distinct combination of found images and symbols, here applied to a polylaminate surface. A red, striped motif recurs throughout the composition, suggesting a partial American flag, which is further implied by a large blue patch in the lower right. Consistent throughout is the use of geometric forms—a combination of stripes, grids, squares, and rectangles, irregularly fused together. Rauschenberg establishes formal tension by unifying these rectilinear aspects within a skewed arrangement, much like the world we inhabit: simultaneously structured and impossible to control. Closure was produced the same year that Rauschenberg’s landmark retrospective opened at the Guggenheim Museum—an event the artist acknowledged as a deeply significant moment in his prolific and expansive career—perhaps hinting at some personal significance to the work’s title.