Robert Rauschenberg
Paintings and Sculptures
1948–1953
53.044 / 49
49 Untitled (Scatole e Feticci Personali), 1953
Wood box, paint, wood weaving shuttle, gravel, dirt, printed paper, wood slat, feather, twine, glass shard, beads, and mirror fragment
Box (closed): 11/2 × 81/8 × 25/8 in. (3.7 × 20.5 × 6.7 cm)
Private collection, Houston
RRF 53.044

Inscribed on bottom of box: CY / RAUSCHENBERG 53 / TANGER


PROVENANCEGaps in the provenance are indicated by “(?)” for a single unidentified owner and “(. . .)” for multiple unidentified owners. See Guide.
Cy Twombly
Nicola Del Roscio, Rome, gift, by May 1994
[Sotheby’s, New York, May 13, 2021, lot 208]
Private collection, Houston, purchase at above, 2021


EXHIBITIONS
1950s

Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Scatole e costruzioni contemplative di Bob Rauschenberg, opened March 14, 1953. (likely shown)

Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome, Bob Rauschenberg: Scatole e feticci personali, March 3–10, 1953. (likely shown)

1990s

American Academy in Rome, American Art in Italian Private Collections, May 27–June 30, 1994. no. 10

2000s

Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy, Rauschenberg, February 29–June 6, 2004. no. 10

2010s

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
1990s

Hopps, Walter. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. p. 139 (pl. 86) (not exhibited)

Boyden, Martha. American Art in Italian Private Collections. Rome: American Academy in Rome, 1994. Exhibition catalogue. no. 10, pp. 21–22, n.p. (ill.), as Scatola Personale

2000s

Davidson, Susan, and David White. Rauschenberg. Ferrara, Italy: Ferrara Arte, 2004. Exhibition catalogue. no. 10, p. 113 (ill.)

Cullinan, Nicholas. “Double Exposure: Robert Rauschenberg’s and Cy Twombly’s Roman Holiday.” Burlington Magazine 150, no. 1264 (July 2008). p. 468 (fig. 36)

2010s

Craft, Catherine. Robert Rauschenberg. London: Phaidon, 2013. p. 37 (no. 30)

Dickerman, Leah, and Achim Borchardt-Hume. Robert Rauschenberg. New York: Museum of Modern Art; London: Tate Publishing, 2016. Exhibition catalogue. p. 82 (pl. 46)