NORMAN, OKLA.- An exhibition featuring work by prominent 20th century artist Robert Rauschenberg opened this week at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Robert Rauschenberg: Pressing News includes work from the artist’s news clipping series, Currents.

In late 1969 after suffering a variety of setbacks in his personal life and increasing apprehension regarding the state of the world, Robert Rauschenberg retreated from New York City to Malibu, California. The famed printmaker intended to calm his creative mind with a large watercolor, but instead created Currents. Rauschenberg collaged together headlines, photographs, advertisements, and articles from more than eight national newspapers in January and February 1970. The collages served as studies for three series of screenprints that collectively formed Rauschenberg' s protest.

“He was very troubled by the state of the world at the time,” explained Eugene B. Adkins senior curator Hadley Jerman. Rauschenberg experienced a devastating studio fire in the same year that assassinations and environmental concerns consumed the media. “He intended to escape the news but ended up exorcising it.”

When the first exhibition of Currents opened at Dayton's Gallery 12 in Minneapolis in April 1970, Rauschenberg included audio recordings of news broadcasts. The sounds and images while demonstrating the artist's concern over his time and place, reveal a world eerily like ours today. Robert Rauschenberg: Pressing News is particularly relevant to the 24/7 news cycle and "doom scrolling" our society engages in today thanks to social media and an increasing amount of politically divided news outlets.

"The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is home to many prestigious works of art, such as Robert Rauschenberg's Currents series," said Thomas Smith, director of the museum. "We are privileged to have culturally important 20th century artwork such as this at our disposal that can be shared with our community. Robert Rauschenberg: Pressing News is on display August 18, 2022 through February 27, 2023.