28 Untitled (Night Blooming), 1951

Oil on canvas

877/8 × 253/4 in. (223.1 × 65.5 cm)

Private collection, California

RRF 51.012

PROVENANCE

( . . . )

Peder Bonnier, New York, purchase, ca. 1980

Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Zurich, purchase, by 1981

[Sotheby’s, New York, October 31, 1984, lot 51, bought in]

Larry Gagosian Gallery, New York, purchase, 1987

Private collection, Calif., purchase, 1987

EXHIBITIONS

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.

2000s

Haus der Kunst, Munich, Black Paintings: Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella, September 15, 2006–January 14, 2007. no. 1

2010s

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. (not in cat.; shown in Los Angeles only)

LITERATURE

1990s

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 32, 63, 64, 77 (pl. 28)

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

Wainwright, Lisa. “Reading Junk: Thematic Imagery in the Art of Robert Rauschenberg from 1952 to 1964.” PhD diss., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1993. ProQuest (304050074). p. xix

2000s

Rosenthal, Stephanie. Black Paintings. Translated by Büro Sieveking. Munich: Haus der Kunst; Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2006. Exhibition catalogue. no. 1, pp. 27, 111 (pl. 1)