POP ART VS ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM (THE REAL SUBTEXT)

A lot has been written about the relationship of Cage and Cunningham, even more about a mid-century affair between Rauschenberg and Johns, but not much about the quartet. Together, they formed a clique of gay artists that ultimately overthrew the macho posturing of the Abstract Expressionist set that dominated mid-century America. Rivalry between the two camps was fierce: Famously, Rauschenberg once erased a Willem de Kooning drawing. While Jackson Pollock and friends hung out at Cedar Tavern on New York's University Place, the four set up camp at rival Dillon’s Bar down the very same street. At nights, they’d drink, cast the I Ching, and hold bowling tournaments on coin-operated machines. One rainy morning in 1953, Rauschenberg woke up to see Fulton Street empty of traffic. He instructed Cage to peel down the street across 20 feet of paper, with the front tire of his Model A Ford coated in house paint. The resulting artwork, Automobile Tire Print, was party a snide takeoff on the works of Ab-exer Barnett Newman.

The Daily Beast
Nov 19 2009