Time Capsule, 1970: Rauschenberg's Currents

About the publication

In 1970 avant-garde artist Robert Rauschenberg superimposed stories, headlines, advertisements, and images clipped from newspapers and tabloids to produce Surface Series from Currents: eighteen large-scale screenprints that reflected the strident social and political change of the period. The series is both a technical feat of modernist printmaking and a chance to peer inside Rauschenberg’s time capsule and witness the cacophony of violence, warfare, and political backlash that defined world events of the time.

In addition to the Surface Series screenprints, the exhibition will feature two original collages on loan from the Rauschenberg Foundation as well as sixteen related works from The Loeb’s collection by artists such as Kurt Schwitters, Lee Friedlander, Walker Evans, Ray Johnson, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol.

Organized by the Princeton University Art Museum in collaboration with the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The presentation at the Loeb has been made possible by the Milton R. Bellin Estate Fund.

The brochure for Time Capsule, 1970: Rauschenberg’s Currents, which was on display at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 26 to September 19, 2021, includes 9 color images and a checklist of the exhibition.