Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist born in 1925 who helped pioneer the Neo-Dada artistic movement and was a bridge into Pop Art. He was influenced by Dadaists like Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell as well as Kurt Schwitters. Rauschenberg created "Combines" which employed non-traditional materials in innovative ways and pushed boundaries in his works like Bed and Monogram. He had a significant influence on other artists like Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein and helped move art in a new direction with his use of everyday objects and pop culture imagery. Rauschenberg challenged notions of what art could be and helped establish concepts that shaped several subsequent decades of art.

1. Robert Rauschenberg neo-dada Born: Texas, 1925 Died: Florida, 2008

2. Rauschenberg's influences: Society and Art American art of that era Post-war affluence

3. Rauschenberg's influences: Artists New York painters The Dadaists Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

4. Duchamp: Bicycle Wheel (1913)

5. Rauschenberg's influences: Cornell Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) Cassiopeia 1 (1960)

6. Rauschenberg's influences: Schwitters Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) Something or other (1922)

7. Rauschenberg: Neo Dada Movement Neo Dada The bridge into Pop Art Jasper Johns

8. Jasper Johns The Critic Smiles (1969) Numbers in color (1958-59)

9. Johns: Three flags (1968) Jasper Johns once said “No American artist, invented more than Rauschenberg”

10. All white and Black Paintings

11. Works similar to Rauschenberg Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) Pananti (1960) Fontana can be considered one of the most important artists in the history of Italian art.

12. Works similar to Rauschenberg Yves Klein (1928-1962) Angel Blue (1961)

13. Robert Rauschenberg on "Erased de Kooning" This piece was one of Rauschenberg's most controversial. It raised many fundamental questions about the nature of art. The viewer was challenged to consider whether erasing another artist's work could be a creative act, as well as whether the work was only "art" because Rauschenberg was responsible.

14. Rauschenberg's work: Combines This is when non-traditional materials and objects are employed in innovative combinations. Monogram (1955-59)

15. Rauschenberg: Bed (1955)

16. Rauschenberg: First landing jump (1961)

17. Rauschenberg's work: Silk screens Retroactive 1 (1964) Creek (1964)

18. Rauschenberg's Legacy Rauschenberg died of heart failure in 2008, aged 82. How should he be remembered? Obscuring boundaries Obscuring boundaries Pushing art Inspiration

19. Marilyn Monroe (1967) Coca-cola bottles (1962) Warhol:

20. Roy Lichtenstein, who's use of comic strips in art followed Rauschenberg's by 10 years, acknowledged the latter's influence on him, and on pop art in general. “The coke bottles he put into his art, the happenings and environments, all the things in which he was involved, brought up a raw, strictly American material .. merchandise as merchandise. Art became American rather than European. The Sixties, Seventies and Eighties were all influenced by that work”.