121 Untitled (Elemental Sculpture), ca. 1953–57

Wood box, stone, twine, and screw eye

Box: 25/8 × 41/4 × 31/2 in. (6.8 × 10.8 × 8.9 cm); stone: 21/4 × 31/8 × 21/4 in. (5.8 × 8 × 5.7 cm); l. of twine (extended): 161/2 in. (42 cm)

Private collection, New York

RRF 53.007

Inscribed on bottom of box: 10/29/57

PROVENANCE

Ileana Castelli, ca. 1957

Nina Castelli Sundell, New York, by descent, 2007

[Christie’s, New York, May 14, 2015, lot 464]

Private collection, New York, purchase at above, 2015

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.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Rolywholyover: A Circus, September 12–November 28, 1993. Traveled to Menil Collection, Houston, January 14–April 2, 1994; Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, April 23–July 31, 1994; Art Tower Mito, Japan, November 3, 1994–February 26, 1995; Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 4–July 30, 1995. (not in cat.)

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, Robert Rauschenberg: Sculpture, October 22–December 31, 1995. Traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Fla., April 26–July 28, 1996. nos. 54, 71

2000s

Dallas Museum of Art, Dialogues: Duchamp, Cornell, Johns, Rauschenberg, September 4, 2005–January 8, 2006. no. 38

2010s

Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York, Robert Rauschenberg: The Fulton Street Studio, 1953–1954, April 4–May 23, 2014. no. 7

Tate Modern, London, Robert Rauschenberg, December 1, 2016–April 2, 2017. Organized with Museum of Modern Art, New York. Traveled to Museum of Modern Art, New York (as Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends), May 21–September 17, 2017; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (as Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules), November 18, 2017–March 25, 2018. (not shown in London)

2020s

Gladstone, New York, Robert Rauschenberg: Sympathy for Abandoned Objects, May 1–June 14, 2025.

LITERATURE

1990s

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 155, 184 (pl. 111)

Camper, Fred. “The Unordered Universe.” Reader (Chicago), March 27, 1992. sec. 1, pp. 32–33

Colpitt, Frances. “Rauschenberg: In the Beginning.” Art in America 80, no. 4 (April 1992). p. 127 (ill.)

Turrell, Julia Brown, ed. Rauschenberg Sculpture. Fort Worth, Texas: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 1995. Exhibition catalogue. nos. 54, 71, pp. 64 (pl. 54), 88, 89 (pl. 71)

Irvine, Madeline. “Turning Artifacts into Art: A Sculptor’s Sense of Flight, Gravity.” Austin American-Statesman, December 16, 1995. sec. C, p. 15

2000s

Kosinski, Dorothy. Dialogues: Duchamp, Cornell, Johns, Rauschenberg. Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005. Exhibition catalogue. no. 38, pp. 44, 47 (ill.)

2010s

Robert Rauschenberg: The Fulton Street Studio, 1953–54. New York: Craig F. Starr Gallery, 2014. Exhibition catalogue. no. 7, n.p. (ill.)

Butler, Karen. “Robert Rauschenberg.” Artforum 52, no. 10 (Summer 2014). p. 367

Dickerman, Leah, and Achim Borchardt-Hume. Robert Rauschenberg. New York: Museum of Modern Art; London: Tate Publishing, 2016. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 92, 113 (pl. 73)

2020s

Robert Rauschenberg: Sympathy for Abandoned Objects. New York: Gladstone, 2025. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 40 (ill. [detail]), 43 (ill.), 44–45 (ill.)