09/21/2026
Over the summer, Digital Archives Intern Charity Dent explored Robert Rauschenberg’s projects for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, which included an official poster and an unrealized performance series. Her research considered how Rauschenberg’s passion for windsurfing informed an ambitious performance proposal, and the ways the sport offered a unique parallel to his visual and creative processes.
Years before conceiving his Olympic “artistic board sailing event,” Rauschenberg was an active windsurfer. His 1979 calendar documents weekend outings and, in a 1980 profile for “People” magazine, he stated that neither painting nor windsurfing could “be manipulated or managed,” expressing a spirit of experimentation and unpredictability that connected the two practices. In the early stages of developing his Olympic poster, Rauschenberg asked whether windsurfing would be an official sport at the Games and considered incorporating images of it into his poster.
In 1984, Rauschenberg proposed a windsurfing performance that would involve two of his earliest collaborators, the composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. The proposal envisioned a fleet of windsurfers riding silkscreened boards and sails in a multimedia event that incorporated live music, choreography, visual arts, athletics, and possibly a pyrotechnic element.
While the performance did not come to fruition, Charity’s research highlights Rauschenberg’s continued exploration of collaborative possibilities, and how creative ideas, questions, and unrealized projects helped to shape his artistic legacy.
Image 1: Rauschenberg quoted in Patricia Burstein, "In His Art and Life, Robert Rauschenberg Is a Man Who Steers His Own Daring Course." People, May 19, 1980. Photograph by Michael Abramson.
Image 2: Terry Van Brunt, Vintage Proof of Robert Rauschenberg windsurfing in Captiva, Florida, circa 1970s.
Image 3: Robert Rauschenberg, Los Angeles Olympic Games, 1982, offset lithograph.
