Interview

He was an astounding innovator who changed the course of art. He was also a bit of a prophet. In honor of his passing, we revisit a 1990 interview full of insights that still sparkle today.

Up until May 12, 2008, if you polled the cognoscenti as to who was the world's greatest living artist, the winner would undoubtedly have been Robert Rauschenberg. But on that date, Rauschenberg moved into another category of greatness. And though his physical heart finally gave out after he chose to remove himself from life support, his spiritual heart beats on in his generous body of work and in the charities he founded-including Change, Inc., which has provided emergency funds for artists in distress for more than 30 years, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to raising awareness of the many issues with which he was involved.

While Andy Warhol may be more associated with Pop art, Rauschenberg was the prime mover of Pop and an enormous influence on Warhol. It was Rauschenberg who introduced the use of silkscreen printing, and it was his defection from the ranks of the abstract expressionists that signaled a new movement afoot. He quipped: "You have to have the time to feel sorry for yourself in order to be a good abstract expressionist."

Rauschenberg had better uses for his time, like inventing new art forms that combined in various ways painting, sculpture, photography, and printmaking. He collaborated with dancers, performers, and engineers. He isn't known as a conceptual artist, but one of his best-known works was erasing a de Kooning drawing; and in 1961, he submitted this work to a portrait show: "This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so."

Although his body broke down, confining him to a wheelchair, his spirit was unconfined and his innovative energy never flagged. He produced great works until the end. He said, "The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history." And to that end, he not only created work that stands as epic testament to his time, but he was always an activist and an instigator, throwing himself wholeheartedly into the struggle that is history.