Dear Friends of the Rauschenberg Foundation,

As we bid farewell to 2025, we reflect on a remarkable milestone for the Foundation: the centennial year of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth. It has been an extraordinary season of creativity, connection, and celebration, as the world came together to honor the indelible legacy of one of the most daring and generous artists of the 20th century.

Throughout this year, we celebrated Rauschenberg’s impact across the globe. More than thirty exhibitions - from M+ in Hong Kong to NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Museum Ludwig in Cologne to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis - traced the many threads of his endlessly experimental practice. Supported by our centennial grants, partner institutions brought the artist’s spirit of collaboration to life through newly published catalogues, performances, educational programs, symposia, and groundbreaking research. In cities large and small, visitors (re)discovered Rauschenberg as a visionary whose ideas remain relevant in the present day.

Rauschenberg’s influence even made its way to the runway of New York Fashion Week in September, when designer Jason Wu paid homage to Rauschenberg’s deep interest in textiles in his Spring 2026 collection, “Collage.” Wu worked closely with the Foundation to create bold and sculptural garments inspired by the artist’s fabric works from the 1970s, capturing Rauschenberg’s inventive spirit.

We marked yet another milestone in October, when we published I Don't Think About Being Great: Selected Writings by Robert Rauschenberg with Yale University Press, edited by Director of Archives Francine Snyder. This publication, a first for the Foundation, aggregates 100 writings by the artist and illuminates a lesser-known element of his practice.

The Foundation continued to provide critical support to artists and organizations through the vital work of the New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Grants and other socially-engaged organizations. In response to ongoing environmental disasters, we supported South Arts and the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund. Looking ahead, we remain committed to advancing new initiatives, expanding opportunities, and offering rapid-response relief when and where it is most impactful.

Research remains at the core of our mission. Over the course of the year, we were privileged to welcome thirteen scholars to our Archives Research Residency program at 381 Lafayette Street. We will publish the first volume of our free online catalogue raisonné in the spring, covering paintings and sculpture from 1948-1953 and featuring essays by artists, conservators, critics, and scholars to present a range of perspectives on this body of work.

The Centennial celebrations will continue into 2026. Rauschenberg Sculpture, opening at The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas on January 31, explores highlights from the artist’s three-dimensional practice in a wide range of materials. In April, The Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut will present an exhibition placing Rauschenberg’s work in dialogue with paintings Tomashi Jackson created during her time at the Captiva Residency this year. Also in April, Kunsthalle Krems opens Robert Rauschenberg: Image and Gesture, the first monographic museum exhibition dedicated to the artist in Austria. We look forward to announcing even more exhibitions in the new year.

As we look towards 2026, we carry Rauschenberg’s reminder that discovery and generosity are lifelong pursuits. In his own words from 1994, excerpted from our recent publication: “I don’t think about being great. My only consideration is a personal involvement in maintaining the adventure of making art. Accepting history, even mine, and continuing, with hopes that I will discover outside of the familiar a light that can shine in someone’s life that can flow with new insights to enrich. The new has been old for centuries. Vision must be kept fresh and nourished.”

May his words continue to guide our vision.

Courtney J. Martin
Executive Director