Customer Reviews

Robert Rauschenberg - Inventive Genius (American Masters)

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If you've never heard Robert Rauschenberg laugh with delight, you MUST get this video! What an absolute joy to find a great artist who so obviously enjoys life and his creativity. His friends even delight in all he brings to their lives. Imagine that! Oh - and his art is delicious. It's hard to believe that one man could contain so much inspiration and create so much art in so many ways. He identifies himself as a "painter" but is obviously so much more. Watching and hearing a bit about his creative process challenges us all to a new level of freedom and a lack of control in our own work. Rauschenberg is not your usual angst-ridden, tortured artist - and I'm so grateful to have made his video acquaintance. The only thing that could be better would be to just hang out with him.

Relaxing, mind-clearing, simple. That's this program, that introduces the listener to Robert Rauschenberg. And I say "listener" because what is said seems more important than the images. Or at least more important than the small-screen glimpses of his work. (To see his work, go to a museum.)

I can't quote Rauschenberg exactly, but he says something like, "I seek the maximum possible lack of control so that something might happen that I couldn't have thought of." Of course that is the essence of invention, and the recipe sounds so simple.

It is the same recipe that allows nature to produce all its wonders.

Fortunately for those of us aren't lucky enough to live near a lake (or on a Florida island), Rauschenberg reopens our eyes to the beauty of the city street, the man-made object, even the TV news, through his collages.

Also to the joy of a variety of friends--not only artists, but dancers, musicians, and even an engineer.

Very interesting and informative but a little on the dry side.