Rauschenberg’s Bed, 1955, by Barbara Carlton

Rauschenberg's Bed, by Robert Rauschenberg (USA). 1955.

Rauschenberg’s Bed, 1955

Art is a threadbare quilt 
aggrandized with paint, hung 
on a wall with a spattered pillow, 
christened, Bed. Gallons of effusion,
in red yellow, blue, black, 
pour over it for decades-- 
the drip is 
an emblem 
of the authentic 
moment. 

The praise of the cognoscenti anoints 
the Artist with the imprimatur 
of ironic, witty genius. 

Never an inkling of recoil at his
contempt for art that works, art
that keeps you warm--the art
of women. For real women--contempt 
for his grandmother, hands knotted 
around her needle, pushing it with 
her grandmother’s thimble, or contempt 
for the girl in a dim Charleston 
sweatshop, a hundred sewing machines 
like wasps buzzing around her, or contempt
for who knows what woman, but 
quilting, I say, is women’s 
art. A woman made this 
and a man was praised for
throwing paint on it.​

Barbara Carlton
​
Barbara Carlton is a writer of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. She lives in San Diego, California. In her other professional life she is an architect. In her personal life she is the mother of two grown children and the servant of two cats known as the Permanent Toddlers.