I have chosen to look at the collage piece 'signs' by Robert Rauschenburg. The title signs also meaning 'the signs of time'. This collage piece was originally made for the front cover of a magazine.
This image is made up of a vary of different screen prints of images that were released in magazines that were going on around that time (1960/1970's). His piece was released in June, 1970 through his gallery. All the people who are used within the collage are people who have all been associated with change and also people who hall all passed on. Death is a big part of the piece as all the people who are in this image are all dead for example Martin Luther King who was shot whilst fighting for civil rights.
Rauschenberg was forty five years of age when he made 'signs'. within this piece they are all things that happened majorly in that time and it shows how time is changing. within this piece there is the death/assignation of Martin Luther king (1968), Neil Armstrong landing on the moon (1969), the Vietnam war (1955-1975), president John F. Kennedy who was assassinated/shot (1963) and finally Janis Joplin who was a singer and song writer of rock music who passed away (1970).
I think this piece of work has a balanced composition. I think this because there has been a good use of smaller and larger images and they are all evenly spaced. If the image had been too crowded with a mixture of different images the collage would loose its meaning. Rauschenberg uses a good use of colour for example the soldiers within the piece are all wearing green meaning they're a secondary colour and opposite this is Janis Joplin who is all in red which is a primary colour and he did this because these are complimentary colours meaning they are opposite each other but they also contrast each other. I think the reason this was done was because Rauschenberg liked to use pain a lot but by putting paint onto the piece of work would fil up the page too much and it would dry out the message that Rauschenberg is trying to get across.
In this piece the spaceman takes up the most room. unlike the others the spaceman is in white which means it contrasts with the rest of the piece. The spaceman is usually the first thing you seen when looking at this art work. Also unlike the others the space man is the only part of the collage where something good happened and it was published a lot by the government and this could be like covering up all the bad things that has happened with the good. The spaceman is also the only person in 'signs' that is looking forward. This could be like looking into the future and the reflection in the helmet being the past. The government spent a lot of money beating another country to the moon in a space race when they could've been fixing the problems that had already occurred but instead they we're trying to cover it all up.
I think the reason why Janis Joplin is in red is so she stands out. She is also the only female on this piece of work showing that back in the 1960/1970's women weren't recognised as much as they are now showing a lot of change. Janis Joplin became famous for her rock music and once again shows how in time things change because nowadays there aren't many famous female rock players.
John F. Kennedy is also a big part of this collage even though it is only the side of his face. He was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States and he ended up being assassinated and being one of biggest events that happened in this time. Robert Rauschenberg also knew the Kennedy family so this must of been a big ting to him.
For my own collages like the way Robert Rauschenberg did with his piece 'signs' I would like my own to have a deep meaning to them. I would have to remember to put too much onto one piece or it starts to loose the meaning and try not to stick to either one or maybe two different medias or it gets crowded.
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