Abbey is one of 15 so-called Carnal Clocks that Robert Rauschenberg produced during a period of frequent collaboration with scientists, engineers and fabricators. A complex mechanism tracks time by sequentially turning on light bulbs arranged in two nested squares—the inner marks the passing hours, and the outer, minutes. The changing bulbs reveal sections of the clock’s reflective face, silk-screened with photographs of everyday objects and the sometimes erotically posed naked bodies of the artist and his friends. These are starkly illuminated at noon and midnight, when all the bulbs turn on simultaneously. The Carnal Clocks are an unusually personal application of Rauschenberg’s technological interests. They were rarely displayed in the years after they were made, due to what Rauschenberg called their deliberately “embarrassing” content, which unnerved commercial gallerists.
Details
- Artist Name: Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008)
- Title: Abbey (from the "Carnal Clock" series)
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Silkscreen ink on mirrored plexiglas in metal frame with electronic equipment
- Dimensions: 60 x 60 x 10 in. (152.4 x 152.4 x 25.4 cm) (67" h. including stand)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of the Artist
- Accession Number: P.1969.084
- Copyright: © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object Information
Robert Rauschenberg, Gift of the artist 1969/10/06 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1969-1975, transferred to;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Inaugural Exhibition / Extended Loan
- Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, 1999-01-18 to 2004-05-30
- Rexer, Lyle, The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography, 2013, p. # 136
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