Leo Steinberg, ‘Excerpt from Other Criteria: The Flatbed Picture Plane’, 1972

Steinberg explores the radical shift from verticality of the pictorial plane towards horizontality. He explains this in literal terms, describing a physical shift of the painting from an ‘uprighted state… correspond[ing] to human posture’ and the way in which Rauschenberg ‘seized’ and ‘uprighted’ his bed against the wall. He uses this literal description to explain the ‘transposition from nature to culture through a shift of ninety degrees’. This move from ‘nature to culture’ is a rejection of the

Rauschenberg symbolises this shift, his work surface ‘tabulates’ information – linked with Pop Art and emblematic early work of Jasper Johns, in this shift in art towards culture.

He described how Rauschenberg’s work of the early 1950s became a metaphor and ‘dump’ for the mind itself, through his

Richard Serra, ‘The Yale Lecture’, 1990

Richard Serra, in his 1990 Yale University Lecture discusses his practice and his attitudes towards site-specificity. He considers the way in which the decision making process is made evident in his work

In their respective texts, Richard Serra and Leo Steinberg present their attitudes towards art and question the general societal perceptions of it. Both artists consider the changing way in which artists produce work, while Serra discusses his own practice of creating steel sculptures; Steinberg’s focus is on Rauschenberg and his radical method of ‘flattening’ the pictorial plane, even with his use of collage and assemblage, as well as the way in which he drew his ideas and imagery from everyday life.

Both texts explore non-traditional attitudes and dismiss commonly held views. Steinberg’s rejection of the vertical picture plane, as a mirror of our own human form, parallels Serra’s rejection of ideas of the traditional studio, in favour of site-specificity and more industrial production methods.