Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Donates Three Sculptures to ARTIST ROOMS

New Additions to the ARTIST ROOMS Collection

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has expanded the ARTIST ROOMS collection with the donation of three sculptures created between 1986 and 1987. The works, which represent a departure from the artist’s famous postwar “Combines,” are constructed primarily from salvaged scrap metal. The gifted pieces include G-I Glut (1986), Rasputin’s Revenge Early Winter Glut (1987), and Mobile Cluster Glut (Neapolitan) (1987).

According to the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, which co-represents the foundation, these sculptures marked “one of Rauschenberg’s earliest forays into a new material, metal, in the form of found objects assembled and riveted together to create wall reliefs and freestanding sculptures.” The ARTIST ROOMS collection, which receives these works, is a joint initiative between Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland that facilitates free touring exhibitions at museums and galleries across the UK.

Thematic Roots of the ‘Gluts’ Series

Rauschenberg conceived the Gluts series as a direct response to the economic and environmental landscape of the 1980s. He drew inspiration from the abandoned gas stations, cars, and machinery that dotted the Texan landscape in the wake of the 1980s oil surplus. The artist viewed these sculptures as a stark warning about the excesses of consumer culture and a sign of social rot.

“It’s a time of glut. Greed is rampant. I’m just trying to expose it, trying to wake people up. I simply want to present people with their ruins . . . I think of the ‘Gluts’ as souvenirs without nostalgia. What they are really meant to do is give people an experience of looking at everything in terms of what its many possibilities might be.”

Robert Rauschenberg

Courtney J. Martin, executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, highlighted the significance of the donation in an official statement. “These three Gluts, forged from the remnants of a particular moment, ask us to look squarely at what we value and what we discard. Collaboration and intentionality were central to the artist’s ethos,” Martin said.

Upcoming Tate Modern Display and Historical Context

The three sculptures will serve as the centerpiece for a larger exhibition at Tate Modern, running from 20 September 2026 through the end of 2027. This display will bring together over 25 works from across the artist’s career, drawing from Tate’s own collection as well as loans from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. The exhibition will feature a diverse array of mediums, including paintings, sculptures, prints, and the artist’s unique kinetic and light works.

Additionally, the display will feature rarely screened film documentation of Rauschenberg’s performances and his collaborations with celebrated choreographers Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown. This exhibition builds upon Tate’s enduring relationship with the artist, which spans from the first acquisition of a silkscreen painting in 1969 to the major retrospective staged in 2016.

The upcoming show also functions as part of the centennial celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Robert Rauschenberg, who is remembered as one of the most influential American artists of the post-war era. Rauschenberg was known for blurring the boundary between art and life, often integrating everyday objects—such as Coca-Cola signs, ironing boards, and newspaper clippings—into his work. While the Gluts are not necessarily categorized as the artist’s most famous series, they have been featured in major institutions previously, including a 2009 exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, which occurred the year after Rauschenberg died.

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