Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
Photography has always been a major part of my vision: my excuse for meddling with what the world looks like.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote underscores the importance of photography as a means of expression and perspective in art. Rauschenberg suggests that through photography, one can influence and reinterpret the world around them.
In this quote, Robert Rauschenberg emphasizes the integral role that photography plays in his artistic vision. He views photography not just as a medium but as a powerful tool for altering perceptions and engaging with the visual aspects of the world. By 'meddling' with how the world appears, he suggests that artists can challenge reality and provoke thought, illustrating the subjective nature of art and its ability to reshape our understanding of the environment.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a photography exhibition to express the transformative power of images.
More from Robert Rauschenberg
All quotes βI never allowed myself the luxury of those brilliant, beautiful colors until I went to India and saw people walking around in them or dragging them in the mud. I realised they were not so artificial.
I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities and a way of making a painting, say, in just one painting or two paintings.
My art is about paying attention - about the extremely dangerous possibility that you might be art.
The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.
There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself in relationship to painting, and that was attitudes like tortured, struggle, pain.
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