Tomorrow's the day!

Modernism & Abstraction kicks off the huge national tour for Treasures to Go on January 7 at The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, Florida . Modernism & Abstraction is one of eight shows that comprise Treasures to Go, the most extensive art tour ever, bringing over 500 of the museum's treasures to more than 70 museums. Reservoir by Robert Rauschenberg, is one of the highlights of this exhibit.

Reservoir is what Robert Rauschenberg calls a "combine" painting—a merging of materials and ideas drawn from the world of painting and the stuff of ordinary existence. Using clocks, wheels, old cans, weathered wood, and crumpled metal, as he has here, suits his goal of eliminating the distinction between art and life.

Source: Jacquelyn Days Serwer. Modernism & Abstraction: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Robert Rauschenberg (born 1925), Reservoir,1961, mixed media, 85 1/2 x 62 1/2 x 15 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.