Robert Rauschenberg: Cardbirds at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (June 8, 2025 – February 15, 2026)
Robert Rauschenberg, “Cardbird V”, 1971, offset and screen print on cardboard. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of an Anonymous Donor, 80.202
June 8, 2025 – February 15, 2026
Now open at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Cardbirds is an exhibition exploring the eponymous series of works Rauschenberg created in 1971 to resemble flattened and cast-off cardboard boxes. Inspired by actual boxes Rauschenberg recovered from dumpsters off La Cienega Boulevard and printed at Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles, these works bear meticulously reproduced imperfections such as labels, stickers and folded edges and highlight the artist’s ingenuity with their trompe l’oeil effect.
