Untitled combines oil paint, paper, fabric, newspaper, wood and a stained-glass panel
illuminated by three yellow bug lights. Rauschenberg once commented that the bug lights served a practical purpose, namely keeping nocturnal flying insects somewhat at bay.
"I'd really like to think that the artist could be just another kind of material in the picture, working in collaboration with all the other materials. But of course I know this isn't possible, really. I know that the artist can't help exercising his control to a degree and that he makes all the decisions finally." - Robert Rauschenberg quoted in Calvin Tomkins, The Bride and the Bachelors: The Heretical Courtship in Modern Art (1965).
"I'd really like to think that the artist could be just another kind of material in the picture, working in collaboration with all the other materials. But of course I know this isn't possible, really. I know that the artist can't help exercising his control to a degree and that he makes all the decisions finally." - Robert Rauschenberg quoted in Calvin Tomkins, The Bride and the Bachelors: The Heretical Courtship in Modern Art (1965).