Robert Rauschenberg & Jasper Johns

Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns were introduced in the fall of 1953; reflecting on the event, Johns later remarked: “Bob was the first person I knew who was a real artist.” By the winter of 1954, the two young artists had formed not only a creative collaboration, as Johns began assisting Rauschenberg with his freelance window display work, but also a romantic relationship that would last until the summer of 1961. As Jonathan Katz points out, “most critics agree that Johns and Rauschenberg’s finest work grew out of the period between 1954 and 1961, a time of intense emotional involvement during which they searched together for an alternative to Abstract Expressionist picturemaking.”