Tracer
Framed: 84 1/2 × 60 3/8 × 2 inches (214.63 × 153.35 × 5.08 cm)
- L3
Venice
Biennale, Venice, Italy 1964.
Ileana Sonnabend, Paris.
Fifty Years of Modern Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966, no. 159.
The Photographic Image, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1966.
Kolnische-Kunstmuseum,
Cologne.
Robert Rauschenberg, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1967.
New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no.
326.
American Pop Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974, no. 58.
Made in the USA: Art from the 50s and 60s, University Art Museum, Berkeley, April 4-June 21, 1987; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 25-September 6, 1987; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, October 7-December 7, 1978, 204.
A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977-1987, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 14 October 14–December 6, 1987, unnumbered.
Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings, 1962-64, Whitney Museum of American Art, December 6, 1990-March 17, 1991, no. 31.
Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, February 5-April 30, 1995; The Saint Louis Art Museum, June 16-September 4, 1995; The Toledo Museum of Art, October 13, 1995-January 7, 1996; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 17-May 19, 1996; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA, July 6-September 22, 1996, unnumbered.,
Tracer is one of the 79 silkscreened paintings Robert Rauschenberg produced between 1963 and 1964, whose imagery is derived from everyday information- photographs, newspapers and magazines. Tracer alludes to the Vietnam War by incorporating American symbols of war and patriotism-army helicopters and a bald eagle. It also juxtaposes an urban street scene and a reproduction of Peter Paul Rubens' Venus at Her Toilet (ca. 1613-15), a classic image of beauty and love.
Rauschenberg presents modern culture bombarded by conflicting images, signs and information. Rauschenberg is considered a pivotal figure in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. He unites the disparate imagery of Pop with the bold brushwork of Abstract Expressionism.
With Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, by 1963;
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Titelman, West Palm Beach, FL, by 1964;
With Barbara Divver Fine Art, New York, by 1984;
Purchased from Barbara Divver Fine Art by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1984.
Time Magainze, (September 18, 1964), 85, (repro.).
Baro, Gene. “The Venice Biennale.” Arts Magazine, Vol. 38 (September 1964), 36, (repro.).
Robert Rauschenberg: Paintings, Drawings, and Combines, 1949-1964 (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 1964), fig. 39.
Waldman, Diane. “Cornell: The Compass of Boxing,” Art News, Vol. 64 (March 1965): 43.
Forge, Andrew. Rauschenberg (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1966), 150.
Henning, Edward B. Fifty Years of Modern Art 1916-1966. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966, 191, (repro.).
Alloway, Lawrence. The Photographic Image. New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1966.
Geldzahler, Henry, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969), 283, (repro.).
Alloway, Lawrence, American Pop Art, exh. cat. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974), 67, (repro.).
Geldzahler, Henry. “Pop Art: Two Views.” Art News, (May 1974), 401.
Wallbank, T. Walter, Alastair M. Taylor, Nels M. Bailkey. Civilization Past and Present (Sidney: Scott Publishing Company, 1975), 4th edition, frontispiece, (repro.).
World Book Encyclopedia, 1978 or 1979.
“Nelson Buys a 1960’s Masterpiece.” The Kansas City Star (June 16, 1985).
“Museum Acquires Major Painting.” The Independence Examiner (June 22, 1985).
“Not Worth Buying.” The Kansas City Star (June 23, 1985).
“Modern Artist will be Topic.” The Kansas City Times (June 28, 1985).
Von Ziegesar, Peter, “Excess: Making a Clean Get-Away in Wafts of Linen” Vagabond Magazine (Kansas City, 1985), 4, (repro.).
“Nelson Acquires Major Contemporary Work.” The Topeka Capital-Journal (July 5, 1985).
“Nelson-Atkins Receives Painting.” The Manhattan Mercury (July 10, 1985).
“Kansas City Museum buys works by Rauschenberg.” The Springfield Leader and Press (July 28, 1985).
Art Gallery International. (August/September 1985), 6.
Canfield, Ann S. “Inspiration Kansas City Style.” Ozark Magazine, (January 1986), 69 – 70.
Halsey, William D. ed. “Rauschenberg, Robert.” Collier’s Encyclopedia, vol. 19 (1986), 672, (repro.).
Stich, Sidra, Made in the U.S.A.: An Americanization in Modern Art, the ‘50s and 60s (Berkeley: University Art Museum, 1987), 204-205, 204, (repro.).
Ehrlich, George. “Rauschenberg, Robert.” World Book Encyclopedia, 1988 ed., 152, (repro.).
Gaggi, Silvio. Modern/Post Modern: A Study in Twentieth-Century Arts and Ideas (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), 72, (repro.).
Goheen, Ellen. The Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1988), 140.
Feinstein, Roni. Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings 1962 – 1964 (New York: Whitney Museum of Art, 1990), 151, (repro.).
Feinstein, Roni, Robert Rauschenberg: The Silkscreen Paintings, 1962-64, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990), 103, (repro.).
Feinstein, Roni. “Behind the Screens.” The Antique Collector. Vol. 62 (March 1991): 64-69.
Johnston, Jill. “The World Outside his Window.” Art in America. Vol. 80 (April 1992): 114-125, 122, (repro.).
Mamiya, Christin J. “We the People: The Art of Robert Rauschenberg and the Construction of American National Identity.” American Art (Summer 1993), 39, (repro.).
Adams, Henry, et. al., Made in American: Ten Centuries of American Art, exh. cat. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, Inc., 1995), 179, (repro.).
Rose, Barbara. Rauschenberg: Express (Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2006), 62, (repro.).
Scott, Deborah Emont ed. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (Kansas City: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 219, (repro.).
