Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde (October Books) [Hardcover]

Branden W. Joseph (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2003 | Series: October Books

Robert Rauschenberg is one of the most important visual artists of the second half of the twentieth century. In Random Order, Branden Joseph examines Rauschenberg's work in the context of the American neo-avant-garde. One of the foundations of his study is Rauschenberg's professional relationship with experimental composer John Cage. From the moment of their encounter at Black Mountain College in 1952, Joseph argues, Rauschenberg and Cage initiated a new avant-garde project, one that approached the idea of difference not in terms of negation but as a positive force. Claiming that Rauschenberg's work cannot be understood solely from the standpoint of the Frankfurt School--whose theories have dominated discussions of avant-garde and neo-avant-garde aesthetics--Joseph turns to the theoretical positions of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida. Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde was not a simple repetition of earlier avant-garde movements, Joseph shows, but a series of practices that opposed the rise of postwar spectacle, commodification, and mass conformity.Beginning with the White Paintings, Joseph examines Rauschenberg?s artistic development from 1951 to 1971. He looks at the black paintings, Red Paintings, Elemental Paintings and Elemental Sculptures, Combines and Combine paintings, transfer drawings and silkscreens, performances, and explorations in art and technology. Joseph?s study not only offers new interpretations of Rauschenberg?s work, but also deepens our understanding of the entire neo-avant-garde project.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Branden Joseph's strikingly original study of Robert Rauschenberg will also be influential as a remarkable cultural history of the intersection of art, media, and technology in the 1960s. Among the book's great merits are its stunning de-familiarization of a well known artist's work and its impressive reconsideration of the political stakes in the aesthetic practices of the period." Jonathan Crary, Columbia University

"Branden W. Joseph has embarked upon the ambitious project of reconstructing the essential part of Robert Rauschenberg's oeuvre.... persuasively shown that Rauschenberg, together with [John] Cage, represents a specific and distinct instance of the American neo-avant-garde." Ales Erjavec Modernism/Modernity

"Scrupulously documented and brilliantly argued, Random Order is the most extensive and probing understanding we have of the aesthetic, historical, and political stakes of Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde artistic project. Like Rauschenberg's 'mole archaeologist,' Joseph unearths the network of artists and theorists that countersigned the artist's desire to enact, in each of his works, not only what it means to encounter a work of art but also how to use it as a weapon to transform our conception of art and the relations in which we live. In the process, he gives us a stunning analysis of the artistic process itself—a process that, as he so beautifully demonstrates, always carries us—with random but unrelenting force—beyond ourselves." Eduardo Cadava , Princeton University, author of Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History

"...succeeds in highlighting an anarchic and gratuitously radical streak in Rauschenberg's early practice that is worth attending to, one that is neither a repeat of earlier avant-garde gesturings nor simply an accommodation to the values and commodifying mechanisms of postwar American consumer society." Alex Potts Art Bulletin

"The strongest passages deal with individual works in depth and with remarkable sensitivity to context. A chapter devoted to Rauschenberg's live performances is outstanding." James Lawrence Burlington Magazine

"Those interested in the interrelationship of various modern arts genres will find this book especially illuminating." Carol J. Binkowski Library Journal

"The short and highly accessible texts featured in this anthology touch on most of the major philosophical preoccupations of Debord and the Situationists. Ranging from movements like Surrealism and the Bauhaus to figures like Lucien Goldmann and Jean-Luc Godard, they reveal what a dialectical analysis of culture in the mid-twentieth century could yield. The more recent contributions to the volume provocatively engage crucial elements of the Situationist legacy and reflect knowledgeably, and in some instances passionately, upon them. An impressive editor, McDonough expertly and even-handedly navigates the polemical reefs of the Situationist history and legacy."--Alexander Alberro, School of Art & Art History, University of Florida

"Reynolds has revitalized not only an important and little-researched moment in Smithson's career, but also -- and perhaps more significantly -- a crucial event in the history of art practice in the U.S. and beyond."--Alexander Alberro, School of Art & Art History, University of FloridaPlease note: Slight change to author's title.

"Scrupulously documented and brilliantly argued, *Random Order* is the most extensive and probing understanding we have of the aesthetic, historical, and political stakes of Rauschenberg's neo-avant-garde artistic project. Like Rauschenberg's 'mole archaeologist,' Joseph unearths the network of artists and theorists that countersigned the artist's desire to enact, in each of his works, not only what it means to encounter a work of art but also how to use it as a weapon to transform our conception of art and the relations in which we live. In the process, he gives us a stunning analysis of the artistic process itself -- a process that, as he so beautifully demonstrates, always carries us -- with random but unrelenting force -- beyond ourselves."--Eduardo Cadava, Princeton University, author of *Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History*

About the Author

Branden W. Joseph is Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and an editor of the journal Grey Room (MIT Press).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; First Edition edition (September 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262100991
• ISBN-13: 978-0262100991
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,805,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable, August 3, 2006

By 

Steve (By DUNDEE Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde (October Books) (Hardcover)

This study of Rauschenberg will doubtless make itself pretty much indispensable in the literature on the artist. It's a brilliant study- Joseph is in command of the literature on the topic, demonstrates a great deal of theoretical sophistication, as well as showing a lot of sensitivity to the works and their context.

Joseph's contention is to explore Rauschenberg's work in relation to the Neo-avant-garde, seeking to show that his work (along with his colleague John Cage) was neither a farcical repetition of 1920s Dada (ie jaded attempts to "shock" the viewer), nor was it an ironic casting-off of the avant-garde project in favour of a capitulation to commodity capitalism (ie through his pop culture references and so on). Instead, Joseph argues- convincingly- that Rauschenberg (and Cage) sought to escape the tyranny of the self- the "ego" of Absract Expressionism, in order to open up perception to differentiation and multiplicity- an attempt to open up a space beyond the totalised structures of late capitalism. (Joseph's concerns give away his being an ex-student of Benjamin Buchloh- hence these particularly Frankfurt School concerns). So for Joseph, Rauschenberg's White Paintings, or his Tire Print with John Cage, were not simply juvenile pranks, nor farcical, worn-out shock tactics, but serious attempts to disclocate habitual modes of perception and cognition- in this way, Rauschenberg both differs from, and continues the avant-garde project of political change.

Joseph makes a good case- in particular, his first chapter, on Rauschenberg and Cage, where he examines their interest in temporality and flux in relation to the ideas of Bergson, is quite brilliant. But the level of discussion is sustained throughout- it's a compelling and fascinating read which will doubtless provoke a great deal of thought.

As you would expect from the MIT Press, its not a study for the lay reader- the usual phalanx of thinkers are brought to bear- Foucault, Deleuze, Bataille and the like- although Joseph draws on them judiciously, without detracting from the focus of his study. In fact its very readable indeed- Joseph hasn't succumbed (yet) to the puffed-up rhetorical excesses of some of his October colleagues.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More a textbook than an art book., September 23, 2009

By 

simmons3d (detroit) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde (October Books) (Paperback)

This is a great book to buy if your more the art historian type. If however, your are simply interested in getting a book with a collection of this fantastic artists work than this book is not for you.

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars sad, October 23, 2010

By 

theend - See all my reviews

This review is from: Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde (October Books) (Paperback)

Not only does this book fundamental misunderstand the extent to which Cage and Rauschenberg were thinking along the same lines as so many artists of their generation, it also misunderstands virtually everything else.