Rauschenberg
A native Texan, Robert Rauschenberg served in the U.S. Navy before studying art at the Kansas City Art Institute, Academie Julian in Paris, and Black Mountain College in North Carolina. In 1949 he moved to New York City and challenged the status quo with his Combines. Rauschenberg continued to break the mold throughout his career.
News
Robert Rauschenberg designing a unicorn costume for his sister Janet for a Mardi Gras celebration, modeled by fellow student Inga (Ingeborg) Lauterstein at Black Mountain College, North Carolina, ca. 1949. Photograph Collection. Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives, New York. Photo: Trude Guermonprez
A Passion for Fashion: 100 Years of Rauschenberg's Fabric Artworks and Costume Designs
Robert Rauschenberg’s path into fine art started not in a studio, but on the stage. As a teenager in Port Arthur, Texas, he sketched and sewed costumes for school plays. Just a few years later, on the GI Bill, he enrolled as a fashion major at the Kansas City Art Institute. This early training with...
Rauschenberg with Jasper Johns, John Cage, Louis Stevenson, and Bob Cato in Rauschenberg’s or Johns’s Pearl Street studio, New York, ca. 1956. Photo: Jerry Schatzberg
Open Call: 2026 Archives Research Residency
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is pleased to announce an open call for applications to the sixth annual Archives Research Residency, a one- to three-week research intensive at the Rauschenberg Foundation Archives in New York City. The program provides support for accommodations and other...
John M. Marshall Elementary School Workshop with artist Scott Bluedorn, 2025. Photo: Kayla Matters
It’s Back-to-School Time: Let These Students Teach you About Rauschenberg
Something special is happening on the East End of Long Island, thanks to a grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to Guild Hall in East Hampton in honor of the artist’s Centennial year. Guild Hall’s Student Art Festival, an annual tradition since 1938, partners regional artists with public...
Artwork
Working in a wide range of materials, techniques, and disciplines, Rauschenberg is celebrated as a forerunner for nearly every art movement since Abstract Expressionism. Become acquainted with Rauschenberg's art and life through highlights from his career and the Foundation's archives.
Artist
The Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project, undertaken in collaboration with INCITE/Columbia Center for Oral History Research, is a collection of firsthand accounts, as told by the artist's family, friends, and many collaborators. To date, we have released thirty-three oral histories to the public.
Archives
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives contain the most comprehensive body of information on the artist’s life and career. This rich resource includes the artist’s personal writings, sketches, correspondence, and audiovisual material, as well as documentary photographs and records from his collaborators.
Programs
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation supports programs for artists, initiatives, and institutions that embody the same innovative, inclusive, and multidisciplinary approach that Rauschenberg exemplified in both his art and philanthropic endeavors.
Residency
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation hosts residencies at the Foundation’s New York headquarters and at the artist’s former Captiva, Florida home and studio. These residencies are designed to provide time and space for research and artistic experimentation across the disciplines.
Foundation
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation was founded by the artist in 1990, and transitioned to its current mission in 2012 – to foster the artistic and philanthropic legacy of Robert Rauschenberg through scholarship, grants, and a residency program.