Beginning in 1970 with the creation of the first Earth Day Poster, Robert Rauschenberg became known as an artist-activist who used art to raise awareness on environmental issues. Today his work sounds like a prophetic rendering of current issues - global warming and planetary health vs the intersection of industrial development.
In 1992 Rauschenberg created “Last Turn - Your Turn” for the UN Earth Summit in Rio where the artist called every individual to action, to take responsibility.
Artists often become activists because they stay in touch with beauty and the environment as it feeds their inspirations. Aggressive developments which sacrafice these things are destructive to human beings on many levels, and artists are often first to remind us of this.
Last year the Celery Pond Advocates joined many local creative-types together with their own brand of portraying artist activists. We tried to keep the public lands off Dunkley Avenue in public hands while trying to preserve Celery Pond wetland.
The group offered the city a wonderful idea for an arboretum and preserve. While that is not currently on the books for the area’s development, it might serve us all well to re-evaluate things as times and economy are changing.
Each day we can be artist-activists, taking responbility to preserve beauty in the environment and for those around us, whether it means throwing away a cigarette butt in a trash container or a water bottle in the same container. What we litter, what we do or have done, is apparent to all around us and there’s no better time than now to start acting with social awareness just as Rauschenberg once called the public to do 37 years ago.
Jacobson Howard Gallery in New York City (33 East 68th Street) is currently exhibiting “Last Turn - Your Turn: Robert Rauschenberg and the Environmental Crisis.”
