SCRAPE by Robert Rauschenberg,

F.M. Hall Collection

The Visual Culture of Robert Rauschenberg

The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden will present The Visual Culture of Robert Rauschenberg, an exhibition of ten artworks from the Gallery's permanent collection from Feb. 9 to March 21. The exhibition surveys the artist's distinctive "visual culture" from 1962 to 1983.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925, Rauschenberg enrolled at the University of Texas in 1943. After spending two years in the U.S. military, Rauschenberg travelled to Paris on the GI Bill and studied art at the renowned Academie Julian. Later in the fall, Rauschenberg enrolled at Black Mountain College, an experimental arts school near Asheville, N.C., where he was influenced by the German modernist Josef Albers. The next year Rauschenberg enrolled in classes at the Art Students League in New York, again under the GI Bill.

Rauschenberg had his first solo show at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951 at age 26, after just a few years in New York. In the early fifties, Rauschenberg's work consisted of the so-called white, black, and red paintings, pictures in which he sought to communicate the "silence of the visual" and that resisted metaphoric allusions. Rauschenberg's white paintings in fact were a major influence on John Cage's (in)famous musical composition 4'33"of Silence. In 1953 Rauschenberg asked Willem de Kooning for a drawing for him to erase. After de Kooning obliged-and even rose to the challenge-by giving him an extremely complex graphite and ink composition, Rauschenberg spent over a month erasing the drawing, titling it Erased de Kooning Drawing and displaying it in a gold-leafed frame.

In 1954, Rauschenberg began to make his "combines," which he continued to make until 1964. Influenced heavily by Joseph Cornell, Rauschenberg's combines consisted of wood panels, collaged photographical images, fabric, found objects, and pieces of furniture unified by a gestural "action painting" brushwork. Operating "in the space between art and life" as he called it, Rauschenberg's combines move from the wall and interact with the environment. In 1953 Rauschenberg constructed a set design for the dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham's Minutiae. From 1954 to 1964 Rauschenberg participated in twenty performances, including lighting, set, and costume design. In addition, both he and Cage were members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Rauschenberg's interest in the physical environment was with him from his early work, as even his dense painted white canvases invited "audience engagement."

Between 1962-64, he incorporated images from discarded photoengraved plates he salvaged from The New York Times and New York Herald Tribune. Rauschenberg also began using his own photographs as well in an attempt to circumvent any copyright problems that his compositions might cause. Urban, 1962, Core Poster, 1965, and Untitled (Statue of Liberty), 1983 utilize such "icons of public memory" as the Statue of Liberty, John F. Kennedy, automobiles and spaceflights, baseball, and other images of modern society are spliced, superimposed, and otherwise juxtaposed in jarring but nuanced transitions, which accommodates the late 20th-century viewers' taste for the rapid-fire imagery that saturates our contemporary society. These works manifest not only an interest in the imagery of popular culture but in the process by which these images are communicated, namely, the layer upon layer of fragmented imagery. But these images, viewed not in isolation but in the context of Rauschenberg's sustained interest in visual culture, become autobiographical as well. These images, which find their way into his compositions throughout the sixties and seventies, present Rauschenberg's own perspective on modern society, on the images and visual "icons" that have most shaped his own "visual culture," his way of making sense out of modern visuality and textuality.

Rauschenberg's sophisticated visual culture is on further display in Scrape, 1974 in which pictorial images, including an airplane and a fragment of a classical Greco-Roman column, appear to float or hover effortlessly above each other. From his well-known Hoarfrost Series (1974-75), Scrape shows his interest in fabrics, using it as an unstretched support for his increasingly refined visual imagery in which he investigated the visual effects of "veiling" and "translucency." But perhaps one of Rauschenberg's most ambitious photomontage compositions is his Currents, 1970, a silkscreen print 54 feet long featuring headlines and photographs and ads from the January and February 1970 editions of The New York Times, New York Daily News, and Los Angeles Times, assembling 36 collage compositions. The title of the project alluded to both "current events" and the "currents" that were sweeping through modern society, which greatly troubled and concerned Rauschenberg. From these 36 collage studies, Rauschenberg produced two portfolios of prints in order to reach a larger audience, of which Currents is a part.

The only work of sculpture in the exhibition, Tampa Clay Piece 3 (R.F.D), 1972, manifests Rauschenberg's life-long preoccupation with the three-dimensional potential of both painting and sculpture. And despite its Duchampian attitude, this crushed box remains laden with the life-world associations of use and disuse and art's ability to facilitate these associations in an ironic, yet passionate manner; as art--or visual imagery--itself is "used" and "disused," which subsequently increases the tension between "art" and "life," between the serious and the humorous, between the profound and the banal.

On March 17, George Neubert will present a gallery talk as part of Sheldon's ongoing educational program "Wednesday Walks." The public is invited to participate at no charge from 12:15 to 1 p.m. Gourmet coffee provided by The Mill and cookies will be available.

When in Rome, Funny Things Happen

Especially Feb. 19-21 at Lied Center

Prepare for a Rip-roaring time as comedian Rip Taylor brings his uproarious antics to Broadway classic A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. This big-time performance will be staged at 8 p.m. Feb. 19; 2 and 8 p.m. Feb. 20 and 2 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

This hilarious musical comedy first premiered on Broadway in 1962. Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics, with book by Burt. Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, were an instant hit. The show launched Zero Mostel to superstardom and pulled in five Tony Awards, including, best musical. A 1990s revival, with Nathan Lane and later Whoopi Goldberg, was an audience favorite in New York. The touring company, with Taylor in the lead role, continues the tradition of laughter and fun.

Forum is a return to ancient Rome when the ruins were brand-spanking new, the chariots were fast and the concubines were faster. Pseudolus, a Roman slave played by Taylor, undergoes a journey filled with sexual temptations and limitless obstacles to obtain freedom from his master.

OK, it's not quite politically correct but it's all in great fun in the grandest tradition of' theatrical farce with mistaken identities, plot twists and subplots on subplots.

Despite its age, the show has worn well, proving that Sondheim is a master craftsman songwriter. Gelbart and Schevelove wrote a witty, literate and lively play that still hits its marks.

Taylor, a last-minute stand-in for the originally cast Jo Anne Worley, has won praise on this tour for his silly double entendres and machine-gun ad libs that have kept audiences howling.

Pre-performance talks begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for the performance are $38, $34 and $29. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.

Call the Lied Box Office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Theatrix's Dead Hamlet Performed Feb. 11-13

In conjunction with a Festival of New Plays, Theatrix will perform Dead Hamlet on Feb. 11-13.

The Festival of New Plays was organized to share new plays with the Lincoln and UNL community while allowing playwrights a chance to hear responses to their works and works in progress. Throughout the festival, UNL actors will be reading from five new plays by local playwrights.

At 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11, Standby, a comedy by Scott Raymond will be read. Dead Hamlet will follow.

Black and Whites, a farce by Pete Taber and Bullet, based on the Starkweather incidents, by Becky Key, will be read at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12. Dead Hamlet will follow at 10:30 p.m.

Some Little Talk A While by Lisa Verigin and Pieces of Time, a one-person show by Joseph McClanahan, will be read at 4 p.m. Feb. 13. Dead Hamlet will be performed at 7:30 p.m.

Each reading will run between 30 and 45 minutes with a short response session to follow. A festival pass is $5 for the show, plus all readings. The individual ticket price is $3. Tickets are available only at the door.

For more information, call Julie Hagemeier at 472-1619.

Nebraska Repertory Theatre Auditions Feb. 13, 14

Nebraska Repertory Theatre ("The Rep") will hold its annual auditions on Feb. 13 and 14 in Howell Theatre. Auditions will be for both Equity and non-Equity actors. In order to secure a time slot, call 472-2072.

The 1999 season will include Deathtrap, Sylvia and Division Street.

Cohn Lecture Feb. 14 in Hillestad Gallery

The Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery is sponsoring a public lecture by visiting artist Akemi Cohn at 2 p.m. Feb. 14 in room 11 of the Home Economics Building on East Campus.

The lecture is in conjunction with her exhibition, Habitat.

Cohn's complex textile work combines sophisticated handling of symbolic imagery. She uses light, transparency, layering, stenciling with traditional Japanese methods and the popular techniques of screen printing, applique, embroidery and stitching.

She says, "the metaphorical process of superimposition is also used. The final images are mined through the physical depth of the piece indicating the many layers of my own personal experience."

In her work, Cohn observes the relationships and tensions between Eastern values, as she was raised, with Western values, as she has been living in Chicago since 1989. In describing her work, Cohn says, "my recent pieces reflect cultural adjustments . . . I have noticed that the city (Chicago) is filled with various ethnic groups, with new and different immigrants still arriving. Many cultural values co-exist. I am interested in observing the process of adjustments to the new cultural values. Can these diverse peoples keep their own traditions and identities?"

Cohn's fascinating interpretations of these themes, abstract and colorful, will be on exhibition at the Hillestad Gallery from Feb. 15 to March 19. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday, and is located on the second floor of the Home Economics building on East Campus.

The annual meeting of the Friends of the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery will convene at 1 p.m. prior to Cohn's lecture. The group is a support organization for the activities of the gallery. A public reception for the artist immediately follows the lecture. Individuals interested in learning more about the Friends group are invited to the annual meeting. Members will be voting on a slate of new board members, reviewing a sample of the new brochure for the gallery and volunteering, to be a docent on Sunday afternoons when the gallery is open from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Latest Glass Collaboration, Monsters of Grace Is High Tech/High Art

Monsters of Grace, the latest collaboration between composer Philip Glass and designer/director Robert Wilson, is an ambitious 3-D animation project that combines high tech with high art.

This stunning computer-generated film will be screened to the Philip Glass Ensemble's live accompaniment at 8 p.m. Feb. 18, in the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

The work, more than five years in the making, cost $1.7 million and at 73 minutes is the longest computer generated 3-D animation ever attempted. It's projected stereoptically in 70-mm format on a full-sized movie screen. Audience members receive and wear souvenir 3-D glasses to fully appreciate the technological wizardry of the piece.

Monsters of Grace has been described as "opera in three dimensions" but that is loosely defined. It's really a song cycle inspired by the poetry of 13th century Persian mystic Jelaluddin Rumi. Glass's composition is softly inflected with Middle Eastern overtones and exotic scales and textures that lend a hypnotic quality to the poem settings, love songs sung in English translation.

Monsters of Grace premiered as a work in progress last year and is making a 28-city tour. Critics have raved at the graphics by the Hollywood animation studio Kleiser-Walczak Construction Co. Images such as a pulsating cable that morphs into a tube and eventually reveals itself as a blood vessel in a disembodied hand are mesmerizing. Shimmering snakes, water and porcelain crockery are among other images that appear to float in midair, then disappear into shadowy lines. A boy rides an old-fashioned bicycle. A helicopter hovers over the Great Wall of China. It took three years to develop the storyboards and another two years to complete the animation as each scene took four to 12 weeks to create on a grid of 50,000 spatial coordinates.

This dreamlike imagery is a trademark of Wilson, whose work is renowned in Europe. He first collaborated with Glass in 1976 when their work Einstein on the Beach was created. That piece, a 4 and 1/2 hour epic, is considered a landmark in 20th century music.

Glass who is onstage for every performance of Monsters, making the music that accentuates the action, says the work continues his lifelong exploration of the relationship of music to text.

With his performing group The Philip Glass Ensemble, Glass has forged a reputation for cutting edge minimalist music. Among his more famous pieces are the film scores Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima, The Thin Blue Line and Kundun.

Wilson, a native Texan, is acknowledged as a leader in the avant-garde theater. A recipient of two Rockefeller and Guggenheim awards, Wilson has collaborated with Tom Watts and William S. Burroughs and his work is consistently praised by European critics.

Monsters of Grace has proved particularly appealing to youthful audiences. Its PG-13 content-level is suitable for middle and high school students and recent screenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music were well received by a college audience. Anyone with a sense of adventure and taste for the newest wave will want to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This event is part of the Lied Center's Discovery! series which brings young talent and cutting edge or original works together in a series that explores and celebrates the freshest creative ideas and newest performers in the arts.

Pre-performance talks, part of the Lied Centers ongoing education programming,, begin in the Lied's Steinhart Room 55 minutes and 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets for the performance are $32, $28 and $24. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College students and youth 18 and younger with proper identification can purchase tickets for half-price.

Call the Lied Box Office at 472-4747 or toll free, (800) 432-3231 for ticket availability.

Outdoor Nebraska Airs Feb. 11 on NETV

Learn when to find "elephant ears" and get a history lesson when Outdoor Nebraska airs this week on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network. The outdoor news magazine series airs on at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and repeats at 8 a.m. Feb. 13.

One of the Nebraska region's most popular panfish is the crappie. An Omaha angler-guide shares his vast knowledge on how to best fish for this species. Come along as Gene Meester's "crappie class" visits a productive Platte River sandpit.

Woods hunters treasure morel mushrooms in the spring, but the fall can yield a delectable edible mushroom as well. Commonly referred to as "elephant ears," a method for finding and picking these mushrooms is the focus of this week's "Wilderness Workshop" featuring Dick Turpin.

Experience a scenic history lesson at Rock Creek Station near Fairbury-a pony express stop along the Oregon Trail depicted at this state historical park. This area also provides visitors with scenic vistas of prairie hilltops, timber studded creek bottoms and rugged ravines.

In the "Nature Walk" a profile of Nebraska's water snake species is featured. This harmless denizen of eastern Nebraska waterways is frequently misidentified as the poisonous cottonmouth, a species not native to Nebraska.

And the "Nebraskaland Moment" looks at one of the many natural jewels that can be found in the Merritt Reservoir area southwest of Valentine. While not as high as the area's Smith Falls, Snake River Falls offers a wider and much more thunderous cascade.

Donna Reed Discussed on Roger Welsch &

Hear about the life of Iowa-born TV mom Donna Reed when Jay Futz, former editor of the University of Nebraska Press, appears at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12 on Roger Welsch &. The interview series airs on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

Welsch comments, "This week's show is going to take some explaining, since it's not about a Nebraskan. Former University of Nebraska Press Editor Jay Futz wrote a book about actress Donna Reed, who was from Iowa. After I read his book, I was fascinated by both Reed's remarkable life and character and by Futz's hopeless love affair with her. What did Reed do that warranted a book about her life? And why would Futz want to write it? Find out this week."

Statewide Profiles Young Nebraska Gays

San Francisco, Miami Beach and New York City's Greenwich Village may be the communities most associated with concentrations of gays and lesbians, but homosexual men and women also live-and grow up-right here in Nebraska. Statewide, the Nebraska ETV Network's weekly news magazine, looks at what it's like to grow up gay in Nebraska in a "Perspective" segment airing at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12.

Statewide correspondent Camille Steed examines the challenges faced by young gays in socially conservative Nebraska. The series, which includes up-to-the-minute news reports from across the state and other features of interest, repeats at 7 p.m. Saturdays and at 1:30 p.m. Sundays.

CPAs Serve Up Tax Tips on Nebraskans Ask

With 824 changes to federal tax laws. certified public accountants will have plenty to talk about when they appear on the Nebraskans Ask series at 7 p.m. Feb. 11 on the statewide Nebraska ETV Network.

CPAs will answer questions called in from around the state during the live, call-in program moderated by veteran journalist Ed Howard. CPAs appearing on Nebraskans Ask are members of the Nebraska Society of Certified Public Accountants, which provided partial underwriting for the program.

Changes resulting from the Tax Relief Act of 1997 affected topics such as home sales, child tax credits, capital gains and individual retirement accounts. CPAs appearing on Nebraskans Ask will discuss many of these changes and answer other questions about filing a federal return.

CPAs will also appear on the series Feb. 25 when the focus turns to state income taxes.