A key instigator of the Pop Art movement, Texan Robert Rauschenberg was one of the most influential figures in shaping the landscape of modern art. He is renowned for his innovative Combines – a unique middle ground between painting and sculpture – and these pieces and more will be on display in a new exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK for 35 years and the first retrospective of Rauschenberg's work since his death in 2008.
The centrepiece of the display is the famous Monogram (1955-9), which has not been shown in London since 1964 as its fragile nature makes transporting it difficult. Merging traditional art materials and everyday objects, Monogram is assembled from such disparate objects as a stuffed angora goat (bought by Rauschenberg for $15 from a used furniture store), a rubber tyre, a tennis ball and a shoe heel.
It will be displayed alongside a collection of his other significant works, including Bed. Created half a century before Tracey Emin famously used the item of furniture in her artwork, Bed is composed of Rauschenberg's own pillow and quilt, given to him by artist Dorothea Rockburne and used as a canvas for abstract pencil drawings and paint.
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"Rauschenberg saw the experience of art as inseparable from the experience of life, and so made work from all sorts of materials – textiles, cardboard boxes, car parts, radios and even stuffed animals," says Achim Borchardt-Hume, the head of exhibitions at Tate Modern.
"Rauschenberg exploded the myth of the artist working isolated in the studio and revelled in making connections between the stuff of the world and the materials and strategies traditionally associated with 'high art'. He blazed a new trail for art in the second half of the 20th century and became a beacon for other artists for generations to come."
Robert Rauschenberg is at Tate Modern from 1 December 2016 to 2 April 2017, tickets £18.50; tate.org.uk
