Departure

Among my most prized possessions is a copy of the catalog for the Museum of Modern Art's landmark 1959 show, Sixteen Americans, which was lying around the house when I was growing up.  It was my first exposure to contemporary art (or more accurately, reproductions of it).  One of those sixteen, and arguably the most influential, was Robert Rauschenberg, who died yesterday in Florida.  Michael Kimmelman's fine obituary is here.

[Photo: Satellite (1955, oil, fabric, paper, wood and stuffed pheasant on canvas), from the Whitney Museum of American Art]