Bourgeois/Rauschenberg

Following my instant interest of both Hokusai and Van Gogh, Louise Bourgeois and Robert Rauschenberg made me do a double take. They both have much more contemporary style of art and are in no way conventional or traditional. While I love the beauty of the first two artists I discussed, I can relate more to the work done by Rauschenberg and Bourgeouis. 

Born the daughter of two tapestry restorers in Paris, Louise Bourgeouis began with art as a teenager. She helped her parents at their business by drawing the missing portions of antique tapestry so they could be rewoven. She had a very prestigious art education after getting a degree in philosophy. She studied at the Louvre, in a school behind the world famous museum. This however did not satisfy her style and fire for art. Not until Bourgeouis moved to the United States, New York to be exact, did she find herself and her own expression as an artist. She is most known for being a painter and sculptor. She created art based off of memories and feelings from her childhood and adolescence. She really bloomed as an artist later in her years as she matured and was the first female to have an exhibit devoted to her in the Museum of Modern Art.

Much like Bourgeouis, Robert Rauschenberg was a very expressive, almost rebellious artist that had a formal art education. Likewise he was exposed to art and took interest in it during his teen years. Even though he started out trying to get a degree, his true passion was art. He began by designing the layout for store displays at exquisite places like Bonwit Teller and Tiffany’s. He differs from most in his variety of art he created. He not only painted and made prints and graphic design, but alsot did costume and performance art. He was an honest, and unconventional artist. In a way he was a sculptor, but not in the typical sense. Rauschenberg assembled art and paintings with real objects like animals, bathtubs, etc. He blurred the line of what was and was not art. He was quoted saying “the strongest thing about my work is the fact that I chose to ennoble the ordinary”. 

Being classically trained is obviously not was creates a traditional styled artist. In both cases, school is what pushed these artists toward breaking boundaries of art. Their contemporary styles let them express honesty whether it be many different emotions or even dark, angry feelings from the past. Art is what we make it and cannot be clearly defined, and both artists show how beautiful that is.