The Rauschenberg Effect

We've been talking a lot about the work of Magritte, but I think it is also important for us to remember one of Charles Mee's original and most important influences on his writing: Robert Rauschenberg. Not only did Mee devote one of the his most famous plays to the work of this artists, but he often mentions in interviews how the work of this American collage artists and painter truly influenced the structure of his plays. The non-lineary, the fragmentation, the brokeness, and that shattered effect that all of Mee's plays have is a true reflection of the way Rauschenberg creates his pieces. Even the appropriation of culture and of other artists' work can be seen in these.

Below are a couple of links that I believe will be useful for us to take a look at in our attempt to understand how Mee writes and what is the effect that he wants to produce for the entire piece. In the end, our audience should have a similar experience watching our play as they do if they went into the PMA to take a look at one of Bob's collages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg- The always reliable, always useful Wikipedia article on the artist. It's a good summary of his life and work with one or two cool pics.

http://www.artnet.com/artist/14005/robert-rauschenberg.html- A collection of 199 of Bob's pieces. The most complete collection of his work I've been able to find online up to now.

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4823&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1- The MoMA's collection of Bob's paintings. These are some of his most improtant and relevant works for our purpsoses as they give us a clear sense what what Mee was interested in.