In the April 1963 article “Rauschenberg Paints a Picture” in Art News, Robert Rauschenberg said of First Time Painting and Second Time Painting, “listening happens in time – looking also has to happen in time”. In this paper I want to show that time is an essential element not just to the subject of Second Time Painting, but it is also critical in the way one observes the work. Second Time Painting is a work of art that invites a constant change of focus and an examination of detail.

Created in 1961, Second Time Painting is a combine painting created with paper, fabric and oil paints on a canvas that is approximately 65.75 x 42 inches large. Rauschenberg uses his bricolage style of working where he takes objects from his daily environment, that have non-art identities and uses a collage technique to bring them together in a work of art, erasing the disparity between art and life. Rauschenberg's collages made plenty of surrealist disassociate juxtapositions. He tops Second Time Painting with a classic surrealist symbol - a disabled clock, which is positioned upside down over a slashed open pair of shorts, a sweatshirt, and a brash array of paint strokes. This painting is part of a series in which the notion of time, found in the title, is the origin of its conception. The first of the three artworks of the series, First Time painting, Second Time painting and Third Time painting, was created during the performance “Homage to David Tudor” that took place at the American Embassy theatre in Paris in 1961.[1]

The painting was set up with its back to the audience so no one could see it being created. Viewers were deprived of observation; however, a microphone was attached to the painting so they could hear the amplified sounds of the artist’s brushstrokes and hammer blows. An alarm clock, which was stuck to the painting, went off when the work of art was finished. At that moment, the artist got up and took his painting backstage, not allowing the spectators to see it. It is interesting to note that the only thing the audience saw of the painting was what one normally does not see - the time of its creation. By substituting sound for sight, the artist was heard in place of the work being seen. This was Rauschenberg’s way of drawing from the concept of time for his work.

First Time Painting reinforces the performative nature of Rauschenberg’s combines, in which theatrical modes of presentation as well as process are crucial aspects. His collaborations with Merce Cunningham appear to have had a direct effect on his artwork, an extension of the fact, as he once revealed in an interview, that he was "stage struck" as a child. There is something inherently theatrical about Rauschenberg’s talent — it is always evident in his radical feeling for color, light, composition and new ingredients and juxtapositions — this theatrical impulse prompted him to his boldest and freshest conceptions when he worked onstage. He designed for dance from the early 1950s until 2007. And in the late ’50s and early ’60s, when he first came to fame, he was recurrently (at times constantly) occupied in dance theater.[2] This goes to show the influence that theatre and dance have had on his work, especially on a performance-focused work like Second Time Painting.

In Second Time painting, the pastel green alarm clock casts its pale double shadow, all around where color reigns supreme. It makes it way into everything, paper, fabric and reproductions. From pinks and reds, greens smothered in white, to the essential and profound contrast of blacks and whites, color, applied in changing surfaces and overflowing drips, orchestrates a genuine lesson in painting around the object. Yet, the color does not overshadow the clock and the value it ascribes to the work. The clicking clock extends a temporal (and thus performative) dimension to the work even when it is exhibited in a “static” museum context. It lends it a sense of movement that is accentuated by the dynamic of the wild brush strokes on all the different materials on the canvas.

The work’s texture is unique because of Rauschenberg’s use of his bricolage technique. It is interesting not only to observe how the artist has assembled pieces of cloth and paper but how various layers of paint he uses react with the materials that he has laid out on the canvas. In some areas, the paint does not cover the material evenly- the materials are all of different sizes and thickness, and some parts of the cloth absorb he paint while other areas are completely drowned in it. There is no real focus-point in the work apart from the clock on the top center. This is why each of the different materials fight for the viewer’s attention. The different sections are not symmetrical. In fact, at first glance, they stand kind of separate, distinct, from one another. Apart from the fact that they are bound by the same canvas, they are not unified as a whole- there are clear divisions and jagged dissections between them. However, after looking for an extended period of time, the different sections all somehow merge together- they are pulled towards one another by the continuity of the indiscriminate and haphazard brushstrokes and paint colors. The dripping paint creates a swirling sensation which

Rauschenberg makes use of hard and bright colors. The corners of the canvas are doused in a bright red, which towards the middle is mixed with white to create a light pink shade. He uses a strong orange right in the center of the work. There are also areas of an intense black, which in some regions is mixed with white to create grey. What is interesting about his use of color is the fact that all of the colors that he chooses translate into strong, independent sections on the canvas. They are only occasionally mixed into pinks and greys to create transitional areas that make it easier to move from one region to another. The strong color palette, however, initially causes the viewer to lose focus. However, the dripping effect and the thick blobs of paint that are randomly squirted onto the canvas help one to transition between the colors after looking at it for a certain period of time.

Another interesting aspect about the work is the way the artist has laid out the ripped pair of beige shorts. They are cut up and spread out across near the top half of the work. However, the artist has made sure to include the pocket and has in fact, taken pains to emphasize it. If observed very closely, one can see that the pocket was initially opened up, stuffed with a piece of cardboard and then sown back on. The outward projection of the pocket is another one of the many different things on the work that the viewer is able to focus his sight on. However, what is fascinating about the shorts is that they are intentionally made to look dirty. They look as though they have been stomped on, with dirty boots. It is unclear if that is the work of the artist himself, or if he had someone else do it for him. However, we see what art means to Rauschenberg through this very simple act of creating shoe marks on the shorts.

Art does not have that untouchable, unattainable quality for him- it is something that we have in our everyday lives. There is no separation between art and life, as he once said. He works in the “gap between art and life” and strives to close that gap until both worlds coalesce into one unified whole. In many ways, that is also the purpose of Second Time Painting. Even though it has all those distinct sections on its canvas that are created because of the use of different kinds of materials and their difference in size, color and texture and the loud colors he makes use of, all those dissimilarities and differences disappear after one looks at the work for a certain period of time. And in time, lies its essence- only after it is observed for a certain period of time can its significance really be appreciated.
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[1] Copeland, Roger. Merce Cunningham The Modernizing of Modern Dance. New York: Routledge, 2003.
[2] Macaulay, Alastair. "Rauschenberg and Dance, Partners for Life." New York Times 14 May 2008, Arts sec