The New School Art Collection, in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, presents Robert Rauschenberg & the News: Select Prints from The New School Art Collection, an installation bringing together fifteen prints by Robert Rauschenberg for the first time. Created between the 1960s and 1990s, the works trace the artist’s sustained engagement with the political, social and environmental upheavals of the twentieth century, responding to events as they unfolded in real time.
Across his career, Rauschenberg sought to collapse what he famously described as the gap between art and life. Using fragments of mass media — newspaper headlines, photographs and printed ephemera — his works register moments of crisis and protest, from industrial pollution and environmental disaster to civil rights struggles and anti-war movements. These prints demonstrate how journalism became both material and subject, reflecting the democratic potential of news as a shared civic language.
Key works include Untitled (from Peace Portfolio), documenting the aftermath of the 1970 Chevron oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and Surface Series 48 (from Currents), in which overlapping headlines — “Runoff Flushes Raw Sewage to River,” “Anti-War Marchers Back GE Strikers,” “Nixon Plans Integration Help for South” — reveal the interconnected nature of environmental, economic and political concerns. Rather than isolating single events, Rauschenberg presents a compressed field of competing narratives, mirroring the saturation and urgency of contemporary media.
The prints were acquired by The New School over several decades, including works from the family of Leo Castelli, one of Rauschenberg’s earliest gallerists, and from trustee Vera G. List. Their presence within the university’s collection reflects shared values between artist and institution: progressive politics, interdisciplinary thinking and a belief in art’s ability to engage directly with civic life.
The installation also anchors the 2025–2026 Vera List New School Art Collection Student Writing Awards, encouraging new scholarship on Rauschenberg’s artistic and activist legacy. Seen together, these works reaffirm his role as a foundational figure in socially engaged art — one whose methods of addressing power, protest and public discourse continue to resonate today.
The New School Art Collection & the Vera List Center for Art and Politics present:
Robert Rauschenberg & the News: Select Prints from The New School Art Collection
On view February 2026 through January 2027
Robert Rauschenberg & the News: Select Prints from The New School Art Collection is organised by The New School Art Collection in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, following a major conservation initiative supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. The installation is curated by Emily Clayton and Carin Kuoni and is presented as part of the global celebrations marking the centenary of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth. Additional support comes from The New School Provost’s Office and The New School Libraries and Archives.
The exhibition forms part of the wider Robert Rauschenberg Centennial, an international programme of exhibitions and events re-examining the artist’s legacy through a contemporary lens. The centennial foregrounds Rauschenberg’s belief in art as a catalyst for civic engagement, cross-disciplinary thinking and social progress, highlighting his enduring influence on generations of artists. rauschenberg100.org
Founded in 1960, The New School Art Collection comprises nearly 2,000 postwar and contemporary works installed across the university campus, reflecting a long-standing commitment to art as a vehicle for sociopolitical change. The Vera List Center for Art and Politics, established in 1992, operates as an artist-focused research centre and public forum, supporting politically engaged art, scholarship and public dialogue at the intersection of culture and civic life. veralistcenter.org
