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Indian fabric on display in Robert Rauschenberg's Jammers series at SFMOMA

110 views · Published 6 January 2018 · 2:21 · Indexed 12 October 2026

Channel: Tipu Purkayastha · 2018 · Entertainment

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Details of Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing The Rules (2017-18) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art website -
https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/robert-rauschenberg-erasing-rules/

From the Rauschenberg Foundation website:

"Almost completely devoid of imagery, the Jammers are mostly made from sewn fabric that is usually hung directly on the wall, often in conjunction with rattan poles or other everyday objects. The series title is derived from “windjammer,” a type of sailboat; individual titles also often have nautical associations." 

"Rauschenberg began the Jammer series in fall 1975, following a trip he had made the previous spring to Ahmadabad, India, a center of textile production. Bringing fabrics back to his studio in Captiva, Florida, the artist remarked on the beauty and luxury of the textiles and the sumptuousness of the colors, which appeared in marked contrast to the hardships he had observed in India: “the cruel combination of disease and starvation and poverty and mud and sand and yet it was all punctuated with maybe just that one piece of beautiful silk.” Mirage (1975), characteristic of the series, is made from sewn fabric; brightly colored and translucent silk, devoid of imagery that is loosely tacked to the wall, allowing gravity to determine its precise disposition." 

"The purpose of Rauschenberg’s trip to Ahmadabad, India, in 1975, which would prove to be significant for the development of the Jammers, was to collaborate with papermakers at the ashram founded by Mahatma Gandhi. Rauschenberg had been invited to work on the project by an Indian family, the Sarabhais, whom he had met while touring India with Cunningham eleven years earlier. Rauschenberg was accompanied on this trip by his son Christopher, two studio assistants, and a small team from Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles."

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