10 Untitled, 1950

Oil on fiberboard

263/8 × 357/8 in. (66.9 × 91.1 cm)

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 (66.4188)

RRF 50.002

Inscribed, upper left: RAUSCHENBERG [incised]; lower center: 50 [incised]

Alternate Title: Basketball Court

PROVENANCE

[Knox Martin, New York, deposit by the artist, ca. 1951]

Oscar Krasner Gallery, New York, purchase, by March 1964

Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York, purchase, March 2, 1964

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., gift, 1966

EXHIBITIONS

1980s

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., The Fifties: Aspects of Painting in New York, May 22–September 21, 1980. (not in cat.)

1990s

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s, June 15–August 11, 1991. Organized by Menil Collection, Houston. Traveled to Menil Collection, Houston, September 27, 1991–January 5, 1992; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, February 8–April 19, 1992; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 14–August 16, 1992; Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, October 24, 1992–January 24, 1993.

2010s

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Dark Matters: Selections from the Collection, February 3, 2012–January 6, 2013. (installed late)

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933–1957, October 10, 2015–January 24, 2016. Traveled to Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, February 21–May 15, 2016; Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, September 17, 2016–January 1, 2017.

LITERATURE

1980s

Rickey, Carrie. “While Eisenhower Slept.” Village Voice, August 6–12, 1980. p. 66, as Basketball Court

Smith, Roberta. “Report from Washington: The ’50s Revisited, Not Revised.” Art in America 68, no. 9 (November 1980). p. 49, 49 (ill.), as Basketball Court

Feinstein, Roni. “The Unknown Early Robert Rauschenberg: The Betty Parsons Exhibition of 1951.” Arts Magazine (New York) 59, no. 5 (January 1985). p. 131, as Basketball Court

1990s

Feinstein, Roni. “Random Order: The First Fifteen Years of Robert Rauschenberg’s Art, 1949–1964.” PhD diss., New York University, 1990. ProQuest (303859753). pp. 56, 82, n.p. (fig. 4), as Basketball Court

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 32, 47 (pl. 12)

Ennis, Michael. “A Protean Talent.” Texas Monthly 19, no. 11 (November 1991). p. 82

Bonetti, David. “Rauschenberg: ’50s Fervor at SFMOMA.” San Francisco Examiner, May 14, 1992. sec. B, p. 6

2010s

Molesworth, Helen, with Ruth Erickson. Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College, 1933–1957. Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2015. Exhibition catalogue. p. 309 (ill.)