Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts

Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts will feature a selected group of approximately forty sculptures
drawn from the holdings of institutions and private collections in the
United States and abroad. After breaking boundaries with his celebrated
Combines, in the late 1950s, his explorations of technology-based art
that made viewers active participants in the 1960s, and his focus on
natural-fiber materials of paper, cardboard, and fabric throughout the
1970s, Rauschenberg’s artistic attention in the 1980s turned toward an
exploration of the visual properties of metal.

Assembling found metal objects such as gas-station signs, deteriorated
automotive and industrial parts littering the landscape, he transformed
the scrap-metal detritus into wall reliefs and freestanding sculptures
that recalled his earlier Combines. Thus he created the Gluts,
sculptural works begun in 1986 and continued intermittently until 1995.