Visual Autobiography

1966

Founds E.A.T. with Billy Klüver

For “9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering” at New York's 69th Regiment Armory Rauschenberg created the performance Open Score. The series was instrumental in the formation of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), a non-profit for collaborations between artists and engineers which he and the Bell Laboratories scientist Billy Klüver officially launched in 1966.

27 giugno 1968 – 6 ottobre 1968

Exhibition: 4. documenta

26 July 1968

Buys a house on Captiva Island

On 26 July 1968 Rauschenberg bought the Beach House, his first property on Captiva Island off the Florida coast, though it did not become his permanent home until the autumn of 1970. Other accounts date the purchase to 1970.

1969

Watches the Apollo 11 launch at NASA's invitation

NASA invited Rauschenberg to witness the launch of Apollo 11. In response he created his “Stoned Moon” series of lithographs, combining diagrams and images from NASA's archives with his own drawings and handwritten text.

autumn 1970

Moves to Captiva for good

From the autumn of 1970 the Captiva house became Rauschenberg's permanent home and studio. The first works made there were the “Cardboards” (1971–72) and “Early Egyptians” (1973–74) series, from locally sourced cardboard and sand: instead of urban imagery he now favoured the natural fibres of fabric and paper.

1970

Sets up Change, Inc. to help artists

Rauschenberg created Change, Inc., a programme awarding one-time emergency grants of up to $1,000 to visual artists in financial need.