As a student in 1949 at the Art Students League
of New York, for example, he laid paper on the floor
of the building's entrance to capture the footprints
of those entering and exiting.10 The creation
of receptive surfaces on which to record, collect, or index the direct imprint
of elements from the real world is especially central to the artist's pre-1955 works.11 Leo Steinberg's
celebrated 1972 article «Reflections on the State
of Criticism» isolated this particular approach to surface as collection point as the singular contribution
of Rauschenberg's works
of the early 1950s, one which galvanized a new position within postwar art. 12 Steinberg coined the term «flatbed picture plane» to account for this radical shift, through which «the painted surface is no longer the analogue
of a visual experience
of nature but
of operational processes.»
In doing so, he not only
celebrates the power
of water, an
element essential to existence, but also revels in Bai's unfettered imagination, evoking Chinese literati concepts
of a contemplative journey within
nature.
The paintings in «By the Wayside»
celebrate aspects
of nature and the environment fading with the passing
of time -
elements of the landscape that seem to be cast aside, or forgotten, yet possess a quiet beauty.