Brace is a painting created by American artist Robert Rauschenberg in 1962, and is considered one of his most significant works. The painting belongs to the Pop Art style, which challenges traditional gestural abstract paintings and the model of the heroic self-expressive artist. Rauschenberg’s approach stood out for his incorporation of everyday objects as art materials, known as the “Combines,” which anticipated the Pop art movement.
Winter Pool was the first work by Rauschenberg to enter a museum’s collection and is a prime example of his highly inventive and influential work. It features an array of various found objects such as oil barrels, street signs, socks among others. Brace too is composed from several disparate elements including ropes, painted panels and pieces of metal.
Rauschenberg’s artwork reflects his vision that art should relate to everyday encounters in the world rather than being merely an expression of interior spaces within an artist’s mind. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation emphasizes new ways of thinking through its support for emerging artists and socially engaged initiatives inviting collaboration with individuals from all walks of life, regardless ethnicity or race.
Overall Robert Rauschenberg sought to cross boundaries between different mediums, incorporating techniques prevalent in sculpture into two-dimensional formats such as Brace cemented that idea undoubtedly. His use of mundane items elevates them into cultural symbols speaking louder than their original functions ever could have done alone – quite like ‘brace’ on its own may have little significance but assembled alongside other materials tells a narrative opening up multiple interpretations from viewers trying to ascertain how each element resonates with them personally.
