Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008) was a Pop Art pioneer who created “combines” such as “Rebus,” which unites one-dimensional painting with three-dimensional objects. Layered with items Rauschenberg collected from the lower Manhattan streets near his studio, it also contains modern and dripped painting, along with strong color rectangles Rauschenberg said were “a record of the immediate environment and time.” He made “Rebus” flatter and sparser than his other combines to invite viewers to get closer to the work, to consider the links between words and images, beauty and ugliness, and art and non-art.