Bleacher Series (1988–91)

The Bleachers are a group of manipulated, large-format black-and-white Polaroid photographs mounted on aluminum. Rephotographing his own earlier photographs (taken from the 1950s through the 1980s), Rauschenberg then applied a print coater, used to prevent the image from fading, with uneven and emphatic gestural strokes. To enhance the fading of the areas of the print where the coater had not been brushed on, Rauschenberg subsequently exposed the prints to bleach, sun, and high-pressure water before mounting them to metal supports.