Robert Rauschenberg
Paintings and Sculptures
1948–1953
53.038 / 115
115 Soles, ca. 1953–54
Wood box, paint, fabric, dirt balls, stones, fresco fragment, twine, and string
Box: 3 × 17 × 41/2 in. (7.5 × 43.3 × 11.4 cm)
Collection of Jasper Johns
RRF 53.038

Inscribed on bottom of box: RAUSCHENBERG 52 / SOLES [stenciled with handwritten underline]


PROVENANCEGaps in the provenance are indicated by “(?)” for a single unidentified owner and “(. . .)” for multiple unidentified owners. See Guide.
Jasper Johns, by exchange, 1950s


EXHIBITIONS
1970s

National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Robert Rauschenberg, October 30, 1976–January 2, 1977. Traveled to Museum of Modern Art, New York, March 25–May 17, 1977; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 24–August 21, 1977; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y., September 25–October 30, 1977; Art Institute of Chicago, December 3, 1977–January 15, 1978. no. 19 (shown in Washington and New York only)

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. (shown in New York only)

2010s

Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York, Robert Rauschenberg: The Fulton Street Studio, 1953–1954, April 4–May 23, 2014. no. 6

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. 



LITERATURE
1970s

Robert Rauschenberg. Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1976. Exhibition catalogue. no. 19, p. 72, 72 (ill.)

1990s

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 159–60, 197 (pl. 124)

Turrell, Julia Brown, ed. Rauschenberg Sculpture. Fort Worth, Texas: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 1995. Exhibition catalogue. no. 57, p. 66 (pl. 57) (not exhibited)

Hopps, Walter, and Susan Davidson. Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1997. Exhibition catalogue. no. 47, p. 77 (pl. 47) (not exhibited)

2000s

Joseph, Branden W. Random Order: Robert Rauschenberg and the Neo-Avant-Garde. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003. p. 331

Molesworth, Helen. Part Object, Part Sculpture. Columbus: Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University; University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005. Exhibition catalogue. pp. 93, 100 (ill.) (not exhibited)

2010s

Richards, Elizabeth. “Rauschenberg’s Religion: Autobiography and Spiritual Reference in Rauschenberg’s Use of Textiles.” Southeastern College Art Conference Review 16, no. 1 (2011). pp. 40 (fig. 2), 45–46

Davidson, Susan. “Mother of God.” Rauschenberg Research Project, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, July 2013. 

Robert Rauschenberg: The Fulton Street Studio, 1953–54. New York: Craig F. Starr Gallery, 2014. Exhibition catalogue. no. 6, 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. 93, 117 (pl. 80)