Soviet/American Array: Part I, Politics and Friendships

Rauschenberg sought to address the politics of peace constructively through art and friendship. He carried out his aims primarily in the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), which included research, exhibitions, and making connections with artists, critics, and poets in eleven countries. As part of ROCI, in 1989 Rauschenberg became the first American artist since World War II to be given a solo exhibition in the Soviet Union. For his Moscow show, Rauschenberg created the print series Soviet/American Array. The Russians invited him to exhibit in the Soviet pavilion at the Venice Biennial in 1990, and he became the first artist to represent a country other than his own in that venue.

Rauschenberg and the Soviet “unofficial” artists represented in this section have all maintained a visual and/or conceptual dialogue for decades.

I felt as though I had a brand new family I had adopted and nobody was more than twenty-one.
— Robert Rauschenberg