The New School Art Collection and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics are pleased to present Robert Rauschenberg & the News: Select Prints from The New School Art Collection
, an installation that brings together, for the first time, fifteen prints by Robert Rauschenberg held in the university’s collection. Created between the 1960s and 1990s, the works reveal the artist’s sustained engagement with the rapidly shifting political landscape of the twentieth century, registering urgent responses to moments of social and political unrest as they unfolded in real time.
Throughout his decades-long career, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) dedicated himself to critically examining what he famously described as the gap between art and life. His works made use of everyday materials—newspaper stories, headlines, photographs, and other fragments of mass media—capturing pivotal historical moments, from environmental disasters and industrial extractivism to the civil rights movement and anti-war protests.
His social and civic engagement reflected the democratic potential of journalism. This installation features such signature pieces as Untitled (from “Peace Portfolio”), documenting the aftermath of a 1970 Chevron Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Another print from 1970, Surface Series 48 (from Currents), features silkscreened newspaper headlines such as “Runoff Flushes Raw Sewage to River,” “Anti-War Marchers Back GE Strikers,” and “Nixon Plans Integration Help for South,” demonstrating overlapping concerns between environmental, economic, political, and social movements.
Rauschenberg’s prints were acquired by the university over many years, several from the family of one of the artist’s first gallerists, Leo Castelli, others by New School Trustee Vera G. List. They epitomize core values of The New School itself such as a longstanding commitment to progressive politics, interdisciplinary inquiry, and the belief—shared by Rauschenberg—that art can bridge civic life, politics, and collective action. Reflecting these intersections of activism and journalism, this installation also provides the impetus for the 2025–2026 Vera List New School Art Collection Student Writing Awards, which examine Rauschenberg’s artistic and activist legacies through original scholarship by New School students.
Working across and beyond traditional artistic boundaries, he developed a practice attuned to the most pressing political, social, and cultural conditions of his time—a form of politically engaged art that continues to resonate today. The prints in the exhibition are emblematic of the broader body of socially engaged artworks held in The New School Art Collection and epitomize the collection’s historic commitment to advancing the importance of art as a vehicle for sociopolitical change. This commitment was foundational to the vision of the collection’s founding trustee, Vera G. List, whose support established both The New School Art Collection and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, which join together as co-curators of the exhibition.
Robert Rauschenberg & the News
Feb 19, 2026 – Jan 4, 2027
The New School / Vera List Center
New York, USA
