Guerra 1 - California State University, Sacramento

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"Rauschenberg was the man who in this century invented the most since Picasso," Jasper
Johns told the Village Voice about his longtime friend and seven-year lover Robert Rauschenberg. 1
This incredibly profound compliment is evidence of the deep respect Johns had for Rauschenberg
and his work, but the respect was definitely mutual. Johns and Rauschenberg, who have been
recognized at different times as being associated with Pop Art, with Neo-Dada, or Abstract
Expressionism; the consensus remains, however, that both together are “jointly responsible…for a
historic shift in the ambitions of art.” 2 Some art historians would go as far as to say that, although
“artistic movements generally involve more than two artists, theirs was confined to them alone.” 3
The “historic shift” they created had everything to do with Johns and Rauschenberg’s unique
relationship, which was indisputably influenced by their connection to Abstract Expressionism and
the tension that connection generated. This paper will explore their relationship, from the year they
met in New York, following their exploration of Abstract Expressionist ideas, their joint-
development of new ideas, the importance of homosexuality in their art, and the culmination of all
of this into some of the most important art American history has seen.
Jasper Johns (American, born 1930) and Robert Rauschenberg (American 1925-2008), met
in the winter of 1953 while both artists were living in New York. Johns was visiting Black
Mountain College, a progressive college in North Carolina that saw art as central to a liberal arts
education, where he was introduced to Robert Rauschenberg through a mutual friend, Suzi Gablik.
They met again later on at an artists party, where they “struck up a friendship.” 4 Johns had moved
1
Jerry Saltz, "Our Picasso?" Village Voice, 3 January 2006.
.
2
John Russell, "Art View; Rauschenberg and Johns: Mr. Outisde and Mr. Inside," New York Times,
15 February 1987.
3
Jonathan Katz, “The Art of Code: Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg,” in Whitney Chadwick,
Significant Others: Creativity and Intimate Partnership, 189.
4
Katz in Chadwick, 191-2.

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to New York in 1949 in order to attend commercial art school. He was drafted into the military in
1950 and returned to New York in 1952. During the time that he met Rauschenberg, Johns had
been working at Marboro bookstore and dabbling in painting, but he was unsure whether or not he
wanted to become an artist. 5 By 1953, Rauschenberg was already somewhat established as an
artist. As a member of the Abstract Expressionists’ circle, he had already shown in a few shows on
invitation of the Abstract Expressionists and individually in prestigious avant-garde galleries as
well. 6 He saw immense potential in Johns’ artwork and eventually convinced him to quit his job at
the bookstore to pursue his art more seriously. They worked together designing window displays
for department stores for extra cash and, after some vigorous encouragement by Rauschenberg,
Johns moved into the same building in 1954. 7 It was in this building that Leo Castelli
(Rauschenberg’s dealer) would discover Johns’ work and throw Johns into the spotlight. 8
Perhaps the most prevalent factor in making the relationship between Johns and
Rauschenberg so influential was the particular tension that surrounded male-male relationships of
the time, especially within the Abstract Expressionist circle. In her essay, "Finishing School: John
Cage and the Abstract Expressionist Ego," Caroline Jones sums up the Abstract Expressionist
sentiment quintessentially:
Briefly put, the subjectivity of the New York school abstract expressionist was
constructed in the American culture of the late 1940s and early 1950s as that of an
isolated, autochthonic, angst-ridden male genius, alternating between bouts of
melancholic depression and volcanic creativity. 9
5
Jill Johnston, Jasper Johns: Privileged Information, New York: Thames and Hudson, (1996): 176.
6
Katz in Chadwick, 191.
7
Johnston, 129.
8
Louis Castelli, Jasper Johns: 35 years [with] Leo Castelli. New York: Leo Castelli Gallery,
1993,163.
9
Caroline A. Jones, "Finishing School: John Cage and the Abstract Expressionist Ego," Critical
Inquiry 19, 4 (1993): 639.

For both men, the nature of their sexuality acted as a unique obstacle to their art. For
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Rauschenberg, the Abstract Expressionist circle provided an environment that was hostile to the
idea of homosexuality. In a world where art was already not seen as the epitome of masculinity,
many of the Abstract Expressionists felt that their masculinity was in particular need of defending.
The idea of homosexuality was positively unwelcome. In addition, the promotion of individual
truth and authenticity that was held so valuable among the Abstract Expressionists acted as a
challenge to confront the artist’s inner self and present it on the canvas. However, “the intense
male-bonding of this almost exclusively masculine art world, coupled with its generalized anxiety
over the very act of art-making, created an atmosphere in which the merest suggestion of
homosexuality was opposed.” 10
Johns felt the pressure of this homophobic environment as well. At the time he met
Rauschenberg, Johns had been living with a good friend of burgeoning New York artists and
faithful patron of both Rauschenberg and Johns, Rachel Rosenthal. Much the more reserved,
introverted individual, Johns had more trouble coming to terms with his sexuality than
Rauschenberg. According to Rosenthal, at an artists party both attended, Johns “‘kind of threw
himself on [her],’” who would act as a “kind of Xenia role to Johns during Rauschenberg’s
courtship of him.” 11 Rosenthal’s idea was that he was “‘trying to avoid a relationship with Bob, not
because he wasn’t attracted to Bob, but because of the stigma, and the fact that in those days it was
a real problem.’” 12 This tension, coupled with Rauschenberg and Johns’ mutual awareness of the
hostility, actually threw them together more profoundly. It isolated them from a community that
would not have accepted their “individual truths,” and forced them to look for new ways of thinking
10 Katz in Chadwick, 193.
11 Johnston, 128.
12 Johnston, 128.

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about art. Johns remarked, “‘Our world was very limited. I think we were very dependent on one
another. There was that business of triggering energies, other people fed into that, but it was
basically a two way operation.’” 13 Together they started a new life, a separate circle in which, as
Rauschenberg put it, “‘Jasper and I used to start each day by [moving] out from Abstract
Expressionism.’” 14
The methods in which both artists moved out from Abstract Expressionism were deeply
entwined. Rauschenberg’s ideas about the role of the artist were obvious. “‘I don’t want my
personality to come out through the pieces,’” he said. “‘That’s why I keep the TV on all the
time….And I keep the windows open. I want my paintings to be reflections of life,’” whereas
Johns had said, “‘In my early work I tried to hide my personality, my psychological state, my
emotions. This was partly to do with
feelings about painting at the time.’” 15
These “feelings” had everything to do
with the unique situation these two artists
had found themselves in. Much of
Rauschenberg’s earlier work reflected the
painterly drips and gestural strokes of the
Abstract Expressionists’ individualism.
1) Robert Rauschenberg, White Painting [seven panel], 1951. Oil on
canvas, 72 x 125 x 1 1/2 inches. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New
York.
However, in the early 1950s, he began to employ media that showed “a restless, reactive, inventive,
and autonomous personality.” 16 He began to explore the possibility that art was not always about
the individual feelings of the painter, but about what the viewer might bring to the piece. His series
13 Katz in Chadwick, 200.
14 Ibid., 197.
15 Johnston, 136.
16 Johnston., 134.

2) Jasper Johns. Target with Plaster Casts, 1955.
Encaustic and collage on canvas with objects. 129.5 x
111.8 cm (51 x 44 in) Collection Mr. and Mrs. Leo
Castelli.
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White Paintings (1951) [Figure 1], which consisted of seven white canvases painted flat white (no
gestural strokes, no texture), was indicative of these feelings of silence of the artist, a reaction to the
Abstract Expressionist movement, and the beginning of the idea he would explore most with Jasper
Johns through the use of culturally familiar imagery in order to involve the viewer.
Johns’ work explored this idea of silence as well. Beginning with his solemn, “silent” works
such as Target with Plaster Casts (1955) [Figure 2], Johns presents work that is laboriously
works, essentially, are about silence.
manifested in encaustic, a temperamental mix of pigment
suspended in beeswax. The composition consists of
fragmented pieces of a plaster-cast male body enclosed in
compartments above an encaustic target. Johns describes
the painting in a sketchbook as “an object that tells of the
loss, destructions, disappearance of objects. Does not
speak of itself. Tells of others.” 17 This passage sums up
the essence of the work perfectly. Target is in opposition
to the idea of personal revelation through painting, and in
the same spirit as Rauschenberg’s White Paintings. Both
On top of this reaction to the soul-bearing individualism of Abstract Expressionism, both
Rauschenberg and Johns move into a humorous parody of Abstract Expressionist style. Together
they explored methods of creating seemingly original, expressionist works in styles that make the
17 Jasper Johns [undated sketchbook] published in Jasper Johns, Ed. Alan R. Solomon, Jewish
Museum, New York, 1964.

perceived sincerity practically impossible. The exploration of this idea is evident in
Rauschenberg’s Factum I and Factum II
(1957) [Figure 3], and Johns’ False Start
(1959) [Figure 4]. In Rauschenberg’s Factum
I and Factum II (1957), this fabricated sincerity
is executed in the duplication of strokes and
gestures, making their spontaneity obviously
impossible. 18 The same sort of impossible
sincerity is evident in Johns’ False Start
(1959), an “Abstract Expressionist color field
4) Jasper Johns, False Start, 1959. Oil on
canvas170.8 x 137.2 cm (67 1/4 x 54 in.)
Private collection, New York.
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3) Robert Rauschenberg, Factum I and Factum II, 1957. Combine
paintings. 155.9 x 90.2 cm (61 3/8 x 35 1/2 in.). Museum of Modern Art,
New York.
labeled with unmatched color names.” 19 The field itself is seemingly expressionist and spur-of-the-
moment, but the carefully stenciled words, discordant to their
respective colors, mock “emotional authenticity,” and create “an
Abstract Expressionist picture that is manifestly untrue.” 20 The
almost camp-like humor of this brave confrontation of Abstract
Expressionism is highly Rauschenberg, the older artist being the
more outgoing, humorous individual. Rauschenberg and Johns,
having “moved out of Abstract Expressionism” together, began
their departure with a rejection of the representation of the artist’s
18 Barbara Rose, “Pop Art at the Guggenheim,” in Steven H. Madoff, Pop Art: A Critical History,
83.
19 Katz in Chadwick, 204.
20 Ibid.

5) Robert Rauschenberg. Bed.
1955. Oil, pencil on pillow, quilt,
sheet on wood supports, 6' 3 1/4 x
31 1/2 x 8 in. MoMa New York
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“inner truth” and continued it with a good-natured mockery of content and parody of style.
The two not only parodied Abstract Expressionism aesthetically, but they also used it as a
means to explore the concept of homosexuality. This topic, rendered in a
mockery of Abstract Expressionist style as well, was an example of how
Johns and Rauschenberg (according to Rauschenberg), “‘gave each other
permission,’” both artistically as well as sexually. Rauschenberg’s Bed
(1955) [Figure 5] has been connected with sexuality in that it is a
reconfiguration of the Abstract Expressionist linking of aesthetics and
sexual politics. Reviews of Bed “claimed that the piece resembled nothing
so much as the sight of a rape, or maybe even a murder.” 21 Johns’ Painting
with Two Balls (1960) [Figure 6], is a little more overt in its assertion of
homoeroticism. The “two balls” of the title refer to actual wooden balls
inserted into the structure of the piece and recall the essence of
maleness. The piece is painted in Abstract Expressionist gestures,
as if directly confronting the Abstract Expressionist hostility toward
homosexuality. 22 Johns’ works of this time are much more vocal
than his earlier work. We begin to see him adopt more
“Rauschenberg ways of doing things” as their relationship
21 Katz in Chadwick, 205.
22 Ibid,, 203.
6) Jasper Johns. Painting with Two
Balls,1960. Encaustic and collage on canvas
with objects 65 x 54 in. Collection of the
artist.

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progresses. 23 With its purposefully weak attempts at mimicking Abstract Expressionist brush-
strokes as well as its desecration of the integrity of the field (the title is scrawled across the front of
the work), Painting with Two Balls is what John Loughery in the Hudson Review calls “good old-
fashioned sass.” 24
Arguably the most influential works of Rauschenberg and Johns, however, were the works
that ultimately influenced Pop Art through the use of culturally familiar media. These works
(Rauschenberg’s Combines, specifically Untitled (1955) [Figure 7] and Johns Flag (1954-55)
[Figure 8]) are truly the culmination of the artists’ shared ideas about the silence of the artist, the
reactions to Abstract Expressionism, and the handling of political sexualized imagery.
Rauschenberg’s Combines are perhaps some of his best-known works, and the time in which he
was making them correlates to the time he was in a relationship with Johns. They were ultimately
about what the viewer can bring to the piece, and Rauschenberg dedicated his first combine to
Johns, perhaps as “a sign of his determining role in its development.” 25 One Combine in particular,
Untitled (1955) is unmistakably soaked in Johns. It
not only contains a photograph of Johns that
Rauschenberg referred to as “gorgeous,” but also torn
up letters from Johns, as well as a small drawing of an
American flag – an homage to Johns’ art. 26 Beyond
23 Roberta Bernstein, Jasper Johns' Paintings and Sculptures, 1954–1974: The Changing Focus of the Eye,
Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985: 141.
24
John Loughery, "Bits and Pieces," The Hudson Review
50, 1 (1997): 116.
25
Katz in Chadwick, 199.
26
Ibid., 201.
7) Robert Rauschenberg. Untitled, 1955. Combine painting.
15 1/2 x 20 3/4 in. Jasper Johns Collection.

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the somewhat intimate content of the piece, it also encompasses the idea of using culturally familiar
objects such as post-cards, printed-paper (which would have been available to any and everyone),
as well as text. Rauschenberg’s combines “are an accurate reflection of the historical situation of a
society everywhere totalized by the forces of commodification and mass media.” 27 This appeal to
the role of the viewer is mirrored in Johns’ Flag
(1955), done the same year. The subject of the
painting seems to be the American flag, however,
the true subject is the neutrality of the object. A
flag was “nobody’s preference; not even his
own.” 28 The fact that the subject is familiar makes
the viewer an active participant in the artwork – a
very Johns-Rauschenberg concept. In addition,
Flag is painted over scraps of newspaper and other pieces of print, so that one can almost read
them. Yet another example of familiarized objects.
8) Jasper Johns, Flag, 1954-55. Encaustic, oil and collage on fabric
mounted on plywood. 42 x 60 5/8 in. Gift of Philip Johnson in honor of
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Rauschenberg and Johns’ mutual influence on each other is undeniably apparent in the work
they produced during the time they were together, however, this influence continued long after they
split up in 1961. The break-up devastated both artists. It was so painful, in fact, that the artists
severed all contact for some time. Johns returned to his native South Carolina and retracted into the
27 Branden W. Joseph, "Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde,"
Modernism/Modernity 12, 2 (2005): 168.
28 Leo Steinberg, Jasper Johns. New York: George Wittenborn, 1963: 8.

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“highly coded and idiosyncratic imagery” of his earlier work. 29 He created images that spoke of the
break-up, including In Memory of My Feelings – Frank O’Hara (1961) [Figure 9], in which he
echoes earlier work about silence and
concealment by painting an envelope shut. 30
The painting even aesthetically suggests the
work he did during his relationship with
Rauschenberg; its shape quite resembles a flag.
Rauschenberg, on his part, created a combine
entitled Slow or South Carolina Fall (1961)
[Figure 10], the title, of course, alluding to
9) Jasper Johns, In Memory of my Feelings – Frank O’hara, 1961,
Oil on canvas with objects. 40-1/4 x 60 x 2-7/8 in. (102.2 x 152.4 x
7.3 cm). Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Johns’ home state to which he had returned. Besides creating cathartic works, however, both artists
began to explore each other’s favorite elements, as if the distance allowed them to toy with each
other’s ideas and styles. Rauschenberg left his characteristic style of using found objects and
elaborate assemblage to explore the two dimensional medium of silkscreen while Johns began to
create larger, more eclectic works consisting of painting as well as collage and assemblage with
found objects. 31
It is impossible to deny the deep connection Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg had
together and the mutual influence they had on each other. They not only admired each other as
fellow artists, but also lovingly as human beings. Rauschenberg was once said, “I have photos of
29 Seth McCormick, "In Memory of My Feelings: Jasper Johns, Psychoanalysis, and the Expressive
Gesture," Source 27, 2/3 (2008): 89.
30 Frank O’Hara was the author of a poem called “In Memory of My Feelings,” a poem about gay
love.
31 Katz in Chadwick, 206.

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him that would break your heart. Jasper was soft, beautiful, lean, and poetic. He looked almost
ill.” 32 The tenderness they felt for each other and each other’s work came through in their own
work, as well as the ways in which they have spoken of each other. Both artists created within the
time they knew each other arguably their best work to date, and the influence of Abstract
Expressionism in creating the time of crisis and environment of tension that encouraged their
exploration of new ideas is glaringly apparent. As gay artists in the 1950s, Rauschenberg and
Johns were extremely fortunate to find in each other lovers, mentors, fellow artists with which to
share ideas, and most importantly, “some semblance of the kind of community that the Abstract
Expressionists took for granted.” 33 Indeed, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns’ relationship
was unique and influential, not only on each other, but on the art world as a whole.
32 Johnston, 128.
33 Katz in Chadwick, 196.

Bibliography
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Bernstein, Roberta. Jasper Johns' Paintings and Sculptures, 1954–1974: The Changing Focus
of the Eye. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1985.
Castelli, Leo. Jasper Johns: 35 years [with] Leo Castelli. New York: Leo Castelli Gallery,
1993.
Chadwick, Whitney and Isabelle de Courtivron, ed. Significant Others: Creativity and Intimate
Partnership. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
Jasper Johns, ed. Alan R. Solomon, Jewish Museum, New York, 1964.
Johnston, Jill. Jasper Johns: Privileged Information. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
Jones, Caroline A. "Finishing School: John Cage and the Abstract Expressionist Ego." Critical
Inquiry 19, 4 (1993): 628-665.
Joseph, Branden W. "Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde."
Modernism/Modernity 12, 2 (2005): 360-362.
Kachurin, Pamela. "The ROCI Road to Peace: Robert Rauschenberg, Perestroika, and the End of
the Cold War." Journal of Cold War Studies 4, 1 (2002): 27-43.
Katz, Johnathan. “Lovers and Divers: Interpictorial Dialogue in the work of Robert
Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.”
.
Loughery, John. "Bits and Pieces." The Hudson Review 50, 1 (1997): 115-121.
Madoff, Steven H. Pop Art: A Critical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
McCormick, Seth. "In Memory of My Feelings: Jasper Johns, Psychoanalysis, and the
Expressive Gesture." Source 27, 2/3 (2008): 82-9.
Russell, John. "Art View; Rauschenberg and Johns: Mr. Outisde and Mr. Inside." New York
Times. 15 February 1987.
.

Saltz, Jerry. "Our Picasso?" Village Voice. 3 January 2006.
.
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