As much as Rauschenberg's work of the early 1950s had been championed for its elimination of painterly conventions — no
subject, no image, no taste, no object, no beauty, no message — Untitled [glossy black painting] makes the case that Rauschenberg was equally radical for what he was willing to let in — chance, duration, changing context, accidents, a life in the present.18
Historians tell us about the Rauschenberg who pursued a mode of creativity that had «a life beyond its initial conception,» but it is not always possible to observe the process of accretion.19 In 1986, Untitled [glossy black painting] would appear on the
cover of Arts Magazine, its identity photographically stilled.20 That was part of the history of this single canvas.
Its work is a resource for
historians now and in the future, because it
covers all aspects of its
subjects» lives, not just their careers, and reveals the broader social history context that traditional written sources simply miss.