Artist Quotes by Robert Rauschenberg

Basically painting is total idiocy.

— Robert Rauschenberg

I got so I was really just sick of sculpture.

— Robert Rauschenberg

A canvas is never empty.

— Robert Rauschenberg

Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made - I try to act in the gap.

— Robert Rauschenberg

Pollock also... wanted one to be wrapped in the painting.

— Robert Rauschenberg

An empty canvas is full only if you want it to be full.

— Robert Rauschenberg

There is no reason not to consider the world as one gigantic painting,

— Robert Rauschenberg

My concern is never art, but always what art can be used for.

— Robert Rauschenberg

I think a painting is more like the real world if it's made out the real world.

— Robert Rauschenberg

For me there is no difference between art and life.

— Robert Rauschenberg

I'm sure we don't read old paintings the way they were intended

— Robert Rauschenberg

I don't think any one person, whether artist or not, has been given permission by anyone to put the responsibility of the…

— Robert Rauschenberg

But I was in awe of the painters; I mean I was new in New York, and I thought the painting that…

— Robert Rauschenberg

I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities…

— Robert Rauschenberg

“Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. I try to act in that gap between the two. -…

— Robert Rauschenberg

Painting is always strongest when in spite of composition, color, etc., it appears as a fact, or an inevitability, as opposed to…

— Robert Rauschenberg

There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself in relationship to painting, and that was attitudes like…

— Robert Rauschenberg

“A pair of stockings is no less suitable o make a painting of than wood,nails,turpentine,oil,and fabric.”

— Robert Rauschenberg

It is neither Art for Art, nor Art against Art. I am for Art, but for Art that has nothing to do…

— Robert Rauschenberg

And all of this, all these physical aspects of painting at that time excited me very much. You could do a picture…

— Robert Rauschenberg

“I didn't want painting to be simply an act of emphasizing one color to do something to another color, like using red…

— Robert Rauschenberg

I feel strong in my belief, based on my widely traveled collaborations, that a one-to-one contact through art contains potent peaceful powers,…

— Robert Rauschenberg

There was something about the self-confession and self-confusion of Abstract expressionism - as though the man and the work were the same…

— Robert Rauschenberg

This was my first encounter with art as art (he saw 'Pinky' painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and 'The Blue Boy" painted…

— Robert Rauschenberg

One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed,…

— Robert Rauschenberg

There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself; it revolved around words like 'tortured', 'struggle'. 'pain'.. .I…

— Robert Rauschenberg

I don't think there's anything really wrong with influence because I think that one can use another man's art as material either…

— Robert Rauschenberg

The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.

— Robert Rauschenberg

But I found a lot of artists at the Cedar Bar were difficult for me to talk to.

— Robert Rauschenberg

And I think a painting has such a limited life anyway

— Robert Rauschenberg

I don't like masterpieces having one-night stands in collectors' homes between auctions.

— Robert Rauschenberg

Understanding is a form of blindness. Good art, I think, can never be understood.

— Robert Rauschenberg

Most artists try to break your heart, or they accidentally break their own hearts.But I find the quietness in the ordinary much…

— Robert Rauschenberg

You can't make either life or art, you have to work in the hole in between, which is undefined. That's what makes…

— Robert Rauschenberg

And also the new excitement and variety of ways that the abstract expressionists were applying paint. You could put it on as…

— Robert Rauschenberg

You have to have the time to feel sorry for yourself in order to be a good abstract expressionist.

— Robert Rauschenberg

I think that in the last twenty years or so, there's been a new kind of honesty in painting where painters have…

— Robert Rauschenberg

My art is about paying attention – about the extremely dangerous possibility that you might be art,

— Robert Rauschenberg

Even at this late date, I go into my studio, and I think 'Is this going to be it? Is it the…

— Robert Rauschenberg

I always have a good reason for taking something out but I never have one for putting something in. And I don't…

— Robert Rauschenberg