Coca-Cola bottles, a worn pair of boots, a clock, and a small ceramic dog, all placed on and around a gold Japanese folding screen, are just some of the elements in American artist Robert Rauschenberg’s Gold Standard, 1964, in Glenstone’s collection. Originally created during a four-hour artist talk-turned-improvised performance in Tokyo on November 28, 1964, Gold Standard is the final work produced in Rauschenberg’s revolutionary Combine series (1954–1964). The Combines are seen as a significant moment in postwar American art. Rauschenberg extended the painterly gestures of Abstract Expressionism into three-dimensional painting-sculpture hybrids, incorporating found materials and setting the stage for Pop art.

–Carly Davis, from the Glenstone Field Guide