A photograph composed of three images vertically adjacent to one another of a truck cab, tracto…

Wedding (Waterworks)

Artist Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925 - 2008)

Date1995

MediumInkjet dye transfer

DimensionsImage: 31 1/2 × 47 1/2 inches (80 × 120.7 cm)
Framed: 38 1/4 × 54 1/8 × 2 inches (97.2 × 137.5 × 5.1 cm)

Credit LineKirk Varnedoe Collection, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, Gift of Robert Rauschenberg.

Object number2006.19

On View

Not on view

Copyright© 2023 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextRobert Rauschenberg’s early work was notable for its inclusion of unusual objects, including newsprint, pieces of wood, fabric, nails, and other small objects. He took the use of nontraditional materials even further with his three-dimensional “Combines.” Neither painting nor sculpture, these works featured unexpected items as varied as an old tire, a stuffed goat, and the artist’s own bed quilt. His hybrid compositions continued the conversation started by Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 exhibition of a “readymade” object—a found, upside-down urinal that questioned the very boundaries of what makes a work of art. In 1963, Rauschenberg began working with silkscreen, a media that had traditionally been associated with commercial rather than artistic use. He combined found images with his own photographs and used the silkscreen process to transfer the images to a canvas, achieving an often jumbled, collage-like result. A later work, Wedding (Water-works) follows this thread by combining an image of an old, dilapidated Jeep with an image of a window curtained by feminine, floral draperies, forcing viewers to search for meaning in the implied relationship between these seemingly unrelated objects.

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