After the defeats in the 1997 general election and 2001 general election, the Conservative Party
began decisive moves towards becoming more centrist; the 2002 — 2003 party chairman and future Prime Minister, Theresa May, would later state that it had been perceived by voters as the «Nasty Party».
In a
decisive move away from the experimental monochromatic series of white, black, and red paintings he created between 1951 and 1953, Rauschenberg
began Collection by covering three panels with red, yellow, and blue fabric and layering them with innumerable collaged, drawn, painted, and sculpted elements.