Monogram

Robert Rauschenberg and the Moderna Museet Collection

Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) is regarded as one of the most important artists of the post-war era and has influenced practitioners in a range of directions and practices, such as Pop, Neo-Dada, assemblage, Fluxus, Nouveau réalisme and performance art.

“Monogram”, which has been part of the Moderna Museet Collection since 1964, belongs to the works that Robert Rauschenberg called “combines” – a kind of hybrid between painting and sculpture. The angora goat was found by Rauschenberg in a used office furniture store and the work went through several reworkings before the goat was finally placed on the collage-like painting, where it now stands.

The work got its title from the way the horned goat and the car tire wrap around each other like the letters in a monogram. The interpretations of “Monogram” are many and in various ways they have been associated with Rauschenberg’s childhood in Texas, as well as with religion, sexuality and the city of New York.