Dislocations [electronic resource] : Robert Rauschenberg and the Americanization of modern art, circa 1964.

9780549066774

2007

1 online resource (408 p.)

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This dissertation is the first scholarly investigation of Robert Rauschenberg's international activity during the 1960s as a founding element in the Americanization of the global art scene. Looking at Rauschenberg's role as costume and set designer for Merce Cunningham Dance Company's 1964 world tour, this study conducts a close formal analysis of Rauschenberg's works---including those he made during the trip---as well as a comparative study of their overseas and domestic receptions. It will address the duality of Rauschenberg's involvement with the Americanization of modern art: while he advocated utopian universalism by acting as a nexus for a transnational avant-garde network, he was also an agent of American cultural imperialism, being the first American winner of the Venice Biennale Grand Prix. This dissertation analyzes the global impact of the rise of American art by presenting four case studies: Paris, Venice, Stockholm, and Tokyo, all cities that Rauschenberg visited in 1964. While the reception of Rauschenberg's art---and American art in general---was unique in each case, this study connects specific effects of Rauschenberg's world trip to present an integrated picture of the emergence of the Americanization in modern art. The art communities of each city were engaged with the same essential question: how to take part in the international art scene as an active and unique force, without becoming a slave to or self-destructively opposing the most powerful agent, American art. Through an examination of these dynamics, this dissertation demonstrates that the Americanization of modern art in the sixties was a precursor to the globalization so evident in current art practice.

Books / Online / Dissertations & Theses

English

July 12, 2011

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2007.

Yale University.