Rauschenberg, Robert: Shim (from the Hoarfrost Editions series) (1974)

The Pop art source of Rauschenberg's prints made in the early-seventies is still the pictures taken from magazines and the mass media regardless of their hierarchical relationships, combined with the reproductions of classic artworks; the difference is that these pictures are printed on muslin or silk. The series created in Los Angeles in 1974 is entitled Hoarfrost, referring to the transparency of the works, which resembles the experience when you try to look through a window covered with frost. The works are not stretched but veil-like, so the lightness, lyricalness and “immateriality” of the materials are emphasized; as the artist put it: they seem to “be approachable, but remain inaccessible.” The color “combined composition” printed on silk is a collage of comic panels, a reproduction of a Northern Renaissance painting and a letter with illegible handwriting. The composition of Shim, like the other pieces in the series, seems to float in the same way as his earlier screen prints do.