"Lately, it feels as if not a year goes by without a critical mass of museums celebrating the anniversary of the birth or the death of some famous artist. Usually, the artist is male. Often, he is white. This autumn, the man of the hour is Robert Rauschenberg, the prolific American polymath who blurred the boundary between painting, performance, installation and sculpture. He was born 100 years ago this month."
"To mark the occasion, nearly 100 organisations around the world are pulling Rauschenberg's work out of storage and putting it on display. More than 30 of them have developed dedicated exhibitions, conservation initiatives and programming. They range from the Menil Collection in Houston, which is presenting the (until 1 March 2026), to the Grey Art Museum in New York, which that engage with the environmental art movement (until 11 April 2026)."
"To come up with a novel take on someone as omnipresent as Picasso, museums had to get highly creative and extremely specific. MoMA to just one summer of the artist's career, when he rented a villa in Fontainebleau, France in 1921. You can thank Picasso's death-iversary for It's Pablo-matic, the Brooklyn Museum exhibition curated by the comedian Hannah Gadsby. The Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted a show exploring Picasso developed for a little-known collector and critic named Hamilton Easter Field."
Major museums worldwide are staging extensive anniversary programming for celebrated artists, with Robert Rauschenberg's centennial prompting nearly 100 institutions to display his work and more than 30 to mount dedicated exhibitions, conservation projects and programs. Exhibitions range from shows at the Menil Collection in Houston to projects at the Grey Art Museum addressing environmental art. Recent anniversary patterns include multiple exhibitions for James Ensor, Ellsworth Kelly and Pablo Picasso. Museums are devising narrowly focused and inventive curatorial approaches to present familiar figures, producing theme-specific shows such as concentrated seasonal studies, comedian-curated exhibitions, and projects highlighting overlooked collectors.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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