MCNY - Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World
Sat, Sep 13
|Museum of the City of New York
Celebrate 100 years of Robert Rauschenberg with a bold new exhibition exploring his iconic fusion of photography, objects, and the streets of NYC.
Time & Location
Sep 13, 2025, 7:00 PM – Mar 22, 2026, 11:00 PM
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029, USA
About the event
Opening September 13, 2025, the Museum of the City of New York, in partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, presents Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World—a major exhibition celebrating the centennial of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Rauschenberg, known for breaking artistic boundaries, famously sought to collapse the space between art and life: “I want a picture to look like something it is.”
The exhibition focuses on Rauschenberg’s deep ties to New York City, the urban landscape that shaped his radical vision. Through three thematic sections—“Early Photographs,” “In + Out City Limits / New York,” and “Photography in Painting”—visitors will explore how the artist combined photography, found objects, and painting to capture the energy, grit, and contradictions of modern life.
The show also features an interactive collage component, inviting visitors to experiment with Rauschenberg’s own techniques. A companion book, co-published by MCNY and…