Robert Rauschenberg: “Combine” (1954)
Estimate: $5/7 million
Sotheby’s to sell works by Robert Rauschenberg Sotheby’s spring auctions of Contemporary Art in New York on 14 and 15 May 2014 will feature a selection of works by Robert Rauschenberg sold to benefit the future and legacy of the Paul Taylor Dance Company.]]>
March 4th, 2014, source: Sotheby’s
The four works stand as a monument to the spectacular artisticcollaboration and friendship between thelegendary dancer and choreographer, PaulTaylor, and Robert Rauschenberg – twotowering cultural figures of the 20th century.Two works will be offered on the evening of 14May, including a rare Combine from circa 1954(est. $5/7 million), and two will be offeredthe following day. The group includes piecesthat were gifted by the artist and one that wascreated especially for one of Paul Taylor’sproductions. The auctions will follow the celebration of the dance company’s 60th anniversarythis March; a milestone that also commemorates the auspicious year that Taylor andRauschenberg first met in a Manhattan gallery.
Hugh Hildesley of Sotheby’s who has served as the auctioneer at the Paul Taylor DanceCompany annual benefit auction for the past eight years commented: “It is most exciting forSotheby’s to present four superb Robert Rauschenberg works which translate the movement ofdance into works of art to benefit the future and legacy of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Thesale in May gives us an opportunity to showcase this bridge between dance and the fine artswhile at the same time celebrating Paul Taylor and his groundbreaking choreography.”
Tracer was created in 1962 for the Paul Taylor dance of the same title (est. $600/800,000). The bicycle wheel rotates according to the movement of the dance, owing its artisticsuccess equally to the mechanisms that make it rotate and to the dance movement thatinspired its construction. Pink Clay Painting (to Pete), which dates from 1953, a year prior to the artist’s first “CombinePainting”, is believed to be the only surviving example from the series of Rauschenberg’s claypaintings (est. $200/300,000).
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American artists Robert Rauschenberg dies at 82 (May 2008)
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