A New Exhibition in London Examines How Life on a Secluded Florida Island Inspired Robert Rauschenberg
The show at Bastian Gallery brings together works Rauschenberg made while living on Captiva Island.
Installation view “Metal, Ink & Dye: Late Works from Captiva Island” 2020. Courtesy of Bastian Gallery.
When we picture the life and career of pioneering American artist Robert Rauschenberg, it usually involves the gritty downtown streets of New York City, where he first found fame. But the artist actually spent the majority of his career some 40 years living on the sun-drenched Captiva Island, off the coast of Florida.
In the 1960s, in need of a reprieve from the dizzying bustling of city life, Rauschenberg first left New York and ventured to a small fishing village on Florida’s Treasure Island. That restorative and productive trip would forever change Rauschenberg’s life, inspiring him to move permanently to Captiva Island in 1970 where he would remain in residency u