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Section 8 – Bruce Conner One Man Show (with Rauschenberg): A Visual Dialogue

 

Bruce Conner and Robert Rauschenberg both experimented with identity as a means to evade limiting art historical categories and refused to be classified by only one of the many mediums in which they worked. Rauschenberg concerned himself primarily with autobiography and conceptual means of self-representation, while Conner considered the multiplication and illusive qualities of identity.

Their dialogue also includes Conner’s interest in the visual dynamics of the mandala and Rauschenberg’s concept of oneness in the monochrome, as well as Rauschenberg’s use of photographic montage and Conner’s unique style of film editing.

 

Your consciousness and your mind start restructuring the world according to whatever values are already there. – Bruce Conner

 

Understanding is a form of blindness. Good art, I think, can never be understood. – Robert Rauschenberg

 

punk

LEFT TO RIGHT: Bruce Conner, ROZ MAKES A GIANT STEP FOR MANKIND: NEGATIVE TREND and ROZ OF NEGATIVE TREND: SUSPENDED ANIMATION from MABUHAY GARDENS PUNK PHOTOS, 1978. Gelatin silver prints, 14 x 11 inches each (35.6 x 27.9 cm). Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Promised gifts of anonymous donor, L.13.2012.43.3, L.13.2013.23. © Conner Family Trust, San Francisco, California / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, New York.

 

Autobiography

Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography, 1968. Offset lithograph on paper, 66.13 x 145.5 inches overall (167.96 x 369.47cm), 66 1/8 x 48 3/4 inches each (167.96 x 123.83 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Gift of Marian B. Javits, 1991.15.1. © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.

 

100 MANDALA

Bruce Conner, #100 MANDALA, 1970. Offset lithograph on paper, edition 10/50, 29 1/2 x 29 1/4 inches (74.9 x 74.3 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Anonymous gift  in honor of Blake Byrne (T’57), 2012.7.2. © Conner Family Trust, San Francisco, California / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, New York. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.