ExhibitionOctober 3, 2025
Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World
In celebration of the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), the MCNY presents a major exhibition exploring the innovative integration of photography and found objects into his art, reflecting his deep engagement with the real world and his complex relationship with New York City.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of postwar New York, Rauschenberg’s irreverent approach to art-making pushed the envelope for an entire generation, reshaping the art world in New York and around the world.
The show is organized into three sections—Early Photographs, In + Out City Limits, and Photography in Painting—tracing the evolution of Rauschenberg’s photographic practice and its interplay with painting, sculpture, and assemblage. His earliest images are largely intimate portraits and experiments with formal elements such as framing, light and shadow, and flattening the picture plane. The centerpiece of the exhibition is In + Out City Limits, a three-year (1979–81) photographic survey conducted across the United States—a project Rauschenberg had originally conceived decades earlier as a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. His New York photographs from this project reveal his fascination with the signs and symbols of human culture, even in the most humble or discarded remnants of the city.
This project is supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Elizabeth Belfer, and the Charles and Norma Dana Fund for Special Exhibits.
For more information about Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World, please visit https://www.mcny.org
Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of postwar New York, Rauschenberg’s irreverent approach to art-making pushed the envelope for an entire generation, reshaping the art world in New York and around the world.
The show is organized into three sections—Early Photographs, In + Out City Limits, and Photography in Painting—tracing the evolution of Rauschenberg’s photographic practice and its interplay with painting, sculpture, and assemblage. His earliest images are largely intimate portraits and experiments with formal elements such as framing, light and shadow, and flattening the picture plane. The centerpiece of the exhibition is In + Out City Limits, a three-year (1979–81) photographic survey conducted across the United States—a project Rauschenberg had originally conceived decades earlier as a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. His New York photographs from this project reveal his fascination with the signs and symbols of human culture, even in the most humble or discarded remnants of the city.
This project is supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Elizabeth Belfer, and the Charles and Norma Dana Fund for Special Exhibits.
For more information about Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World, please visit https://www.mcny.org
