Robert Rauschenberg
Paintings and Sculptures
1948–1953
53.018 / 84
84 Black Painting, ca. 1953
Oil and newspaper on canvas
301/8 × 24 in. (76.4 × 61 cm)
Kunstmuseum Basel, Purchase (G 1977.27)
RRF 53.018

Alternate Title: Untitled


PROVENANCEGaps in the provenance are indicated by “(?)” for a single unidentified owner and “(. . .)” for multiple unidentified owners. See Guide.
Previous work (no. 18) painted over by the artist, ca. 1953
Eleanor Ward, New York, ca. 1953
Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Cologne, purchase, by 1971
Franz Meyer, Basel, purchase, by 1973
Kunstmuseum Basel, purchase, 1977


EXHIBITIONS
1950s

Stable Gallery, New York, Rauschenberg: Paintings and Sculpture, September 15–October 3, 1953. 

1960s

Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Conn., A Contemporary Collection of Painting and Sculpture Selected from the Collection of Eleanor Ward, May 16–September 16, 1965. 



LITERATURE
1960s

A Contemporary Collection of Painting and Sculpture Selected from the Collection of Eleanor Ward. New London, Conn.: Lyman Allyn Museum, 1965. Exhibition catalogue. n.p., as Should Love Come

1990s

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 55, 68, 152 (fig. 45), 153, 173 (pl. 100), 193 (pl. 120 [install]), as Untitled [small black painting] (not exhibited)

Feinstein, Roni. “Rauschenberg: Solutions for a Small Planet.” Art in America 86, no. 2 (February 1998). p. 70

2000s

Rosenthal, Stephanie. Black Paintings. Translated by Büro Sieveking. Munich: Haus der Kunst; Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2006. Exhibition catalogue. no. 20, p. 130 (pl. 20), as Untitled (not exhibited)

2010s

Dickerman, Leah, and Achim Borchardt-Hume. Robert Rauschenberg. New York: Museum of Modern Art; London: Tate Publishing, 2016. Exhibition catalogue. p. 94 (fig. 5 [install]) as Untitled (Black Painting) (not exhibited)