“The one thing that has been consistent about my work is that there has been an attempt to use the very last minutes of my life and the particular location as the source of energy and inspiration, rather than retiring to some kind of other time, or dream, or idealism.”
—Robert RauschenbergA giant of 20th century art, Robert Rauschenberg’s 1972 – 1973 series of twelve lithographs, Made in Tampa, is comprised of imagery including bags, boxes, and barrels, replete with labels and tags, printed using several techniques, including blueprinting, stenciling, and collage. The majority of the prints primarily include abstract images of distressed or cut cardboard and cardboard boxes, along with one blueprint, Tampa 9, examining the design and details of a barrel from multiple perspectives. The cardboard’s prevalence in the Made in Tampa series reflects Rauschenberg’s keen recognition of the material’s universality and ubiquitousness that is often overlooked, during both the early 1970’s and today.
In 1970, Rauschenberg moved from New York City to Captiva Island, Florida, just six years after winning the highly sought after International Grand Prize for Painting at the 1964 Venice Biennale. Along with this prestigious award, Rauschenberg saw a dramatic rise in fame during the sixties and with his heightened social stature came increasing demands for appearances and various commitments. This change spurred his move to Florida as a means to distance himself from his sudden canonization. In Florida, Rauschenberg’s penchant for utilizing materials and treasures abandoned on the streets of New York was challenged by Captiva’s lack of found objects. As the artist explains, “I thought, okay, I’m going to live [in] many other places and can’t be dependent on the surplus and refuse of an urban society. So, what material, no matter where I was in the world, would be available? Cardboard boxes! It was sort of a practical, rational decision. I still haven’t been anyplace where there weren’t cardboard boxes… even up the Amazon.” The abundance and access to the wood pulp paper fibers gave way to the brilliant idea: to collect and pay homage to the material that rules the modern, ever-evolving world.
The choice to frame cardboard as the subject of the Made in Tampa series has important cultural ramifications, especially because the protagonist was chosen primarily based on its’ afore-mentioned abundance. In 1970, Rauschenberg is living the onset of market globalization and product distribution. The cardboard box is an industrially manufactured product that fulfills the very specific need of commodity distribution, and generally has a one-use life cycle before it is discarded. Rauschenberg’s prints are substantial and occasionally look as though their dimensions are true to life. By utilizing realistic, large proportions Rauschenberg is drawing the viewer’s absolute attention to his quotidian, yet extremely important and abundant subject matter, elevating cardboard from an every-day object to a material worthy of a vignette. The choice of the cardboard box shows an acute awareness by Rauschenberg of the unstoppable vigor of commodities and capitalism in the age of heightened migration, the expanding tourism industry, and the professional needs of a progressively globalized and de-localized world.
Rauschenberg in his studio, Captiva, Florida. Image from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, photograph attributed to Ed Chapell. From 1972 through 1987, Rauschenberg created over 30 editions, from prints to sculptures and photographs, including the Made in Tampa series, at the University of South Florida, Tampa and helped to establish the school’s experimental educational and professional printshop, Graphicstudio. In the early 1970s, Dr. Donald J. Saff, the founding director of Graphicstudio, recruited Rauschenberg to work as a collaborator and student mentor. The studio stood apart from other printshops due to its unique pairing of artists, professional printmakers, and students in a university setting. This mixed-ability, collaborative learning became the essence of Graphicstudio, encouraging established and emerging artists to create new printmaking techniques and aesthetic expressions.
Literature
Ruth Fine and Mary Lee Corlett, Graphicstudio: Contemporary Art from the Collaborative Workshop at the University of South Florida, 1991, cat. nos. 170-172 and 177-181
Catalogue Essay
Including: Tampa 1; Tampa 2; Tampa 3; Tampa 8; Tampa 9; Tampa 10; Tampa 11; and Tampa 12
5
Tampa 1-3; and Tampa 8-12, from Made in Tampa
1972-73
The set of eight prints comprising one blueprint and sepia print and seven lithographs in colors, two with blueprint, two with collage, one with sepia print and one with graphite, on various wove papers, with full margins.
all I. various sizes
smallest S. 68 x 13 in. (172.7 x 33 cm)
largest S. 34 x 118 in. (86.4 x 299.7 cm)
All signed, dated and annotated 'Presentation Proof' in pencil (the edition was 20 in Roman numerals), published by Graphicstudio, University of South Florida, Tampa (with their blindstamp and inkstamps on the reverse), one framed and seven unframed.
Estimate
$10,000 - 12,000
Editions & Works on Paper
New York Auction 12 February 2025
10
This lot is no longer available.
149
This lot is no longer available.
