“The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.” 

—Robert Rauschenberg

Utilizing nine stones and one plate in the printing of the edition, Water Stop stands as one of Rauschenberg’s most complex and involved lithographs. Rauschenberg, a longtime supporter of the Kennedy family’s various political pursuits, prominently featured imagery related to Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign in Water Stop: Bobby himself is depicted twice, while other images, like that of a Black neighborhood, construction plans, railroad tracks and New York buildings reflect the Kennedy’s history as a New York Senator and his platform as a presidential hopeful, defined by a drive for racial equality and social progress. Rauschenberg worked on the print from Autumn 1967 to May 1968, culling current magazines from the newsstands for images that offered a degree of vivid immediacy and relevance that his accumulated stocks of source material could not supply, speaking to the moment of political urgency. 

After his working process, which involved using his signature solvent transfer technique to bring his images to lithographic stones, the edition was completed and signed by Rauschenberg just one week before the June 6 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Rauschenberg, who greatly admired John F. Kennedy and mourned his own assassination five years prior, would’ve undoubtedly felt the loss of R.F.K., whom Water Stop so distinctly honors. Nevertheless, Rauschenberg’s dedication to democracy remained unyielding; the artist continued to deploy his artistry to democratic causes throughout his life, including a campaign poster for another member of the Kennedy family: Ted Kennedy’s 1994 bid for reelection as Massachusetts State Senator (lot 209 in the present sale).