Rauschenberg's first involvement with performance art began at Black Mountain College in 1952 when he participated in composer John Cage's Theater Piece #1 with choreographer Merce Cunningham.
Listen to John Cage's Ocean of Sounds:
Merce Cunningham wearing feathered chaps designed by Robert Rauschenberg in a 1964 performance of Aeon (1961) in Tokyo. Courtesy Sogetsu Foundation. Photo: Yasuhiro Yoshioka.
Source: Walker Living Art Collections
Carolyn Brown and Judith Dunn in costumes designed by Robert Rauschenberg for Cunningham’s Aeon (1961). Photo: Richard Rutledge. Courtesy of the Merce Cunningham Trust.
Source: Walker Living Art Collections
Robert Rauschenberg's set for Merce Cunngingham Dance Company's Minutiae , 1954
Throughout his career, Rauschenberg not only designed sets, costumes, and lighting for Cunningham and other choreographers such as Trisha Brown and Paul Taylor, but he also performed and choreographed his own works.
Rauschenberg performing his piece Pelican (1963), First New York Theater Rally, May 1965.
Source: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Robert Rauschenberg, Elgin Tie, 1964, performed at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, September 1964.
Source: Walker Living Art Collections