Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) was one of the great innovators of postwar American art. His images have the energy of New York: simultaneous impressions, unexpected encounters and an enduring curiosity about the world. At Nordisk Kunsthandel, you can buy selected works by an artist who helped transform the very idea of what a work of art could be.
New York – a driving force in his art
Rauschenberg settled in New York in 1949. There he developed a visual language that brought painting together with photography, everyday materials and images from the mass media. He became a central figure in a community that opened American art to new media and new forms of collaboration.
His compositions can feel like a walk through Manhattan. A face, a sign, a facade and a bold colour catch your attention in turn. There is no single route through the picture. Your eye moves between details and discovers connections that were invisible at first. This mobility gives the work its vitality: it makes room for both the pace of the city and the viewer’s own associations.
His early studios included spaces on Fulton Street, Pearl Street and Front Street. On Pearl Street, he worked one floor above Jasper Johns. A Broadway studio followed, and in 1965 he bought 381 Lafayette Street in NoHo. The building became a home, a workplace and a setting for creative exchange. Today it houses the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
The Combines and a new visual language
During the 1950s, Rauschenberg developed his celebrated Combines, bringing painting, collage and physical objects into the same work. A piece of fabric or a used object could carry as much visual weight as a brushstroke. These works challenged the division between painting and sculpture.
The invitation to look differently is equally radical. An everyday object already has a history when it enters a picture. Placed beside other materials, it acquires new possibilities. For us, this is one of Rauschenberg’s greatest strengths: his art enlarges our attention. It makes us notice what we might otherwise walk past.
His first retrospective museum exhibition took place at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1963. The following year, he received the International Grand Prize in Painting at the Venice Biennale. This international breakthrough demonstrated the central place his experiments had come to occupy in postwar art.
Buffalo II – sold for US$88,805,000
On 15 May 2019, Buffalo II, painted in 1964, sold at Christie’s in New York for US$88,805,000. The spectacular result set an auction record for Rauschenberg and placed the work in the international top tier of the world’s most expensive artworks sold at auction.
The monumental work combines oil and silkscreen ink on canvas and measures 243.8 × 183.8 cm. John F. Kennedy appears alongside an astronaut, American symbols and urban imagery. Created in Rauschenberg’s Broadway studio, the painting brings the images of its time into a composition with the familiarity of a document and the freedom of painterly invention.
The record illustrates the exceptional standing a major work can achieve. Buffalo II is a unique painting, so its price is a milestone in the artist’s market history rather than a price reference for every editioned print. Rauschenberg’s importance also reaches far beyond an auction result. His enduring appeal lies in the way he opens the picture to the world.
Printmaking as an independent artistic field
Printmaking occupies a central place in Rauschenberg’s work. He made his first lithograph at Universal Limited Art Editions in New York State in 1962 and won the Grand Prize at the international print exhibition in Ljubljana in 1963. Printing techniques offered ways to explore photographic imagery, layers, shifts and the meeting of precision with spontaneity.
A Rauschenberg print can offer a concentrated encounter with his entire visual world. Look at the places where a photographic fragment dissolves into a field of colour. Notice how a recognisable figure can partly disappear and re-emerge elsewhere. Every layer affects the next. From a distance, the work reads as a complete composition; close up, it becomes a sequence of small discoveries.
American imagery with an international outlook
Rauschenberg’s engagement extended beyond the studio. Through Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, ROCI, he travelled to ten countries between 1984 and 1991, creating exhibitions and encounters across cultures. The project expressed his belief in artistic freedom, dialogue and art’s ability to bring people together.
This offers a compelling approach to his use of American subjects. A flag, a familiar figure or a monument can open a conversation about identity, history and the images we share. The motifs are instantly recognisable, yet their meaning remains open. They may prompt pride, questions, memories and fresh associations in different viewers.
People for the American Way Print at Nordisk Kunsthandel
Our People for the American Way Print from 1991 brings together many of the qualities that make Rauschenberg’s prints so absorbing. The Statue of Liberty, stars and photographic fragments meet bold areas of colour. Its vertical format gives the image a commanding presence, while its many layers reward closer attention.
The work is a signed and dated lithograph and screenprint in colours on Arches Cover paper, published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles. The sheet measures 121.9 × 90.5 cm. It is offered unframed at DKK 225,000 and is brokered non-exclusively on behalf of the owner, so it may already be sold. Visit the artwork page for full details and contact us to confirm availability.
For us, its strength lies in the meeting of an iconic subject with an open pictorial space. It can bring a distinctive American perspective to a collection and create a visual focal point in a room. Its large scale makes space for both the force of the colours and the quieter details. Choose it for the experience you want to return to.
Buy art by Robert Rauschenberg
Visit the available artwork for the image, price and specifications. Use the purchase button on the artwork page, or contact Nordisk Kunsthandel to discuss the work, its scale and framing possibilities.
Biographical information: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Buffalo II sale result and artwork details: Christie’s, 15 May 2019.
Quarry, 1968
Explore Robert Rauschenberg – Quarry, 1968, a signed offset lithograph in a natural wood frame, priced at DKK 35,000. Sale is arranged non-exclusively on behalf of the owner, so the work may already be sold.