Autobiography (Broadside)

One of Rauschenberg's largest prints, Autobirography features content of a more personal nature, including a full-body x-ray of the artist; an astrological chart (Libra); biographical passages arranged in concentric rings; a childhood photograph; and a documentary photograph of the artist's first performance piece Pelican (1963). Printed on a commercial press designed for billboard advertisements, this offset lithograph was intended to serve as a widely distributed broadside, an advertisement of sorts for the artist himself. Like many of his prints from the 1960s, Rauschenberg relies on juxtaposed photographic imagery to generate tthe work's meaning.