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Lot Essay
In 1970, Robert Rauschenberg moved from New York to Captiva Island, a secluded, windswept spot off the Gulf Coast of Florida. Freed from the urban clutter of lower Manhattan, Rauschenberg began a provocative new series—the Hoarfrosts—that were created on sheets of diaphanous fabric with transfer-printed imagery culled from magazines, newspapers and photographs. Created in 1975, Untitled (Hoarfrost) is a large-scale, three-part work from this series in which gauzy cotton and delicate silk have been imprinted via solvent transfer. Loosely tacked to the wall, Rauschenberg allows the gentle folds and undulations of the material to subtly distort the printed imagery, which has been mirrored by nature of its transfer process, lending the piece an ephemeral, dreamlike quality. Its name stems from canto 24 of Dante’s Inferno, which reads: “In that part of the youthful year...the hoar-frost copies on the ground the outward semblance of her sister white.” The phrase evokes the change in season signaled by the first frost of winter and its delicate, fleeting quality. Its hidden, poetic meaning provides a convenient analogy for Rauschenberg’s series, which is described in a 2005 review “When moist atmosphere comes in contact with a cold surface, it forms a thin, translucent film of ice crystals called hoarfrost. The effect is an appropriate metaphor for Robert Rauschenberg's series of wall hangings from the 1970's. Blow a little warm air on hoarfrost, and it disappears; that's the ephemeral quality these pieces capture” (H. A. Harrison, “Rauschenberg: Tantalizingly Elusive,” The New York Times, October 2, 2005).
Like much of his work, Untitled (Hoarfrost) playfully juxtaposes imagery from newspaper ads and photographs, whose meaning is deliberately obscured by the subtly shifting sheets that undulate and quiver at the slightest movement. As in the earlier solvent transfer drawings of the 1960s, Rauschenberg used black-and-white photographs that he lifted from commercial newspaper ads. In Untitled (Hoarfrost), a collection of pop culture paraphernalia is imprinted across the sheets of silk, from radial tires and refrigerators to shoes and outdoor furniture. Like others in the series, Rauschenberg includes a real paper bag that is printed over and partially obscured by the sheet of printed cotton gauze. Other images seem to reference the mythic American West, for instance a photograph along the right edge of a Native American and an advertisement that reads: “Lasso a value! Save $20 to $30 on rugged, western style ‘Gazebo’ furniture.”
As the art critic James Lawrence remarked: “the Hoarfrosts played a vital role in reconciling [Rauschenberg’s] early activities with the direction he took after 1970. They brought established techniques into harmony with more recent preferences... The Hoarfrosts also heralded the reintroduction of imagery, which Rauschenberg had temporarily expelled as his life and work changed location and direction" (J. Lawrence, “Full Circle,” Rauschenberg, exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2010, p. 26). Indeed, the Hoarfrosts allowed Rauschenberg to reinvestigate the most fundamental techniques of the earlier decade in a looser, freer, more colorful arrangement, no doubt inspired by his relocation to Captiva Island. Indeed, Untitled (Hoarfrost) evokes the breeze blowing off the water and the flutter of a silk curtain, “as if the light, air, sea and sun had liberated an imprisoned soul" (S. Hunter, Robert Rauschenberg, New York, 1999, p. 113).
Like much of his work, Untitled (Hoarfrost) playfully juxtaposes imagery from newspaper ads and photographs, whose meaning is deliberately obscured by the subtly shifting sheets that undulate and quiver at the slightest movement. As in the earlier solvent transfer drawings of the 1960s, Rauschenberg used black-and-white photographs that he lifted from commercial newspaper ads. In Untitled (Hoarfrost), a collection of pop culture paraphernalia is imprinted across the sheets of silk, from radial tires and refrigerators to shoes and outdoor furniture. Like others in the series, Rauschenberg includes a real paper bag that is printed over and partially obscured by the sheet of printed cotton gauze. Other images seem to reference the mythic American West, for instance a photograph along the right edge of a Native American and an advertisement that reads: “Lasso a value! Save $20 to $30 on rugged, western style ‘Gazebo’ furniture.”
As the art critic James Lawrence remarked: “the Hoarfrosts played a vital role in reconciling [Rauschenberg’s] early activities with the direction he took after 1970. They brought established techniques into harmony with more recent preferences... The Hoarfrosts also heralded the reintroduction of imagery, which Rauschenberg had temporarily expelled as his life and work changed location and direction" (J. Lawrence, “Full Circle,” Rauschenberg, exh. cat., Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2010, p. 26). Indeed, the Hoarfrosts allowed Rauschenberg to reinvestigate the most fundamental techniques of the earlier decade in a looser, freer, more colorful arrangement, no doubt inspired by his relocation to Captiva Island. Indeed, Untitled (Hoarfrost) evokes the breeze blowing off the water and the flutter of a silk curtain, “as if the light, air, sea and sun had liberated an imprisoned soul" (S. Hunter, Robert Rauschenberg, New York, 1999, p. 113).