Artist Robert Rauschenberg, Dead at 82

Robert Rauschenberg was a truly unique American genius. His huge assemblage paintings (if that's what they were called) were-- and still are-- amazing in their ability to force their audience to re-evaluate the role and purpose of fine art. How can we explain a piece of art dripping with paint, covered with words and graffiti, pillows, rope, police barriers, a mattress, axe handles, and with a stuffed white goat with horns (or a chicken, or a crow) standing in the middle of it? Raushenberg's work gave voice to the zany sixties dream of smashing apart the establishment and rebuilding it from scratch. He showed us what that would look like-- it was a mess, it was magisterial and monumental-- and it was beautiful, and there was surprise, and darkness, and chrome-bright colors; humor, laughter, and joy. He once erased a de Kooning drawing and exhibited that. Humanity is better for the work he produced. There is no better tribute to a life.