Coca Cola Plan 1958

Robert Rauschenberg made this funny and touching assemblage, "Coca Cola Plan," using found materials like wood, bottles and wings! The thing that catches my eye first is the way Rauschenberg combines high and low elements. You have the "plan" at the top, maybe for some kind of rational structure, but then he disrupts it with these messy, drippy Coca-Cola bottles. The way he uses the bottles, especially the one with the red and yellow paint running down it, feels so gestural. It's like a painting in itself, a mini-action painting trapped inside a bottle. And then there are the wings, which feel almost angelic, contrasting with the very earthly, commercial feel of the Coca-Cola bottles. It’s this weird tension between the sacred and the profane, the planned and the accidental, that makes Rauschenberg so interesting. It reminds me a bit of Kurt Schwitters, another artist who found beauty and meaning in everyday junk. It's all just stuff, right? But then it becomes art.