Time Capsule, 1970: Rauschenberg's Currents

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 featured 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. The exhibition was organized by the Princeton University Art Museum in collaboration with the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The presentation at the Loeb was made possible by the Milton R. Bellin Estate Fund. There are works that appeared in this exhibition that were loans to the Loeb and therefore do not appear on this website.