Harbor 1964

Robert Rauschenberg made *Harbor* with paint and collage, and he left the process wide open for us to see. The colours feel punchy and loud, but they also feel like they’ve been found, almost by accident. What strikes me most is how the materials are put together. There’s a real mix of textures, some smooth and almost transparent, others thick and opaque. Look at the big blue swoosh at the top. You can almost see Rauschenberg making that mark, really feeling the paint drag across the surface. It’s raw and immediate, but also kind of clumsy. Then you have the collage elements, like the Sunkist lemons and the clock face, which bring in a whole other layer of texture and meaning. Rauschenberg reminds me a little bit of Kurt Schwitters, who was also into collage and assemblage. But where Schwitters was more about order and control, Rauschenberg is all about letting things happen, and embracing the chaos. It’s like he’s saying that art doesn’t have to be perfect or precious, it just has to be real.