Coastal Draft (Hoarfrost)

1974

Not on view

A man playing pool, a freeway from above, an octopus’s tentacles—what do these images have in common? Encouraged by his astrologer to live closer to water, Rauschenberg abandoned New York and relocated to Captiva, Florida, in 1970. The new location, coupled with the artist’s increased travel abroad, inaugurated a new experimentalism in his work that was grounded in unusual materials like cardboard as well as the silk and linen used here. Pictures transferred from newspapers and encyclopedias hover and blur as if printed upon smoke or an icy frost (an idea evoked by the series title, Hoarfrost); while humble currents of air, like those occasioned by bodies as they pass, continue to animate the work.

Artwork Details

Title: Coastal Draft (Hoarfrost)
Artist: Robert Rauschenberg (American, Port Arthur, Texas 1925–2008 Captiva Island, Florida)
Date: 1974
Medium: Offset and transfer printing on silk, paper, and linen with inscriptions in graphite
Dimensions: 85 × 51 5/8 in. (215.9 × 131.1 cm)
Classification: Textiles
Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2013
Object Number: 2013.990
Rights and Reproduction: © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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